A lawyer has been indicted for allegedly fabricating information to help Chinese enter Taiwan under false pretenses, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday, citing potential threats to national security.
Chen Chen-wei (陳振偉), a lawyer who owned an immigration consulting agency, and others drew up false business plans to secure permits from the National Immigration Agency (NIA) for four Chinese nationals to enter Taiwan in 2023 and 2024, prosecutors said.
Instead of visiting Taiwan for business purposes, three of the Chinese were in Taiwan to apply for Belizean passports at the Central American country’s embassy in Taiwan, prosecutors said.
Photo: Wu Sheng-ju, Taipei Times
Chen’s group was paid US$80,000 to help applicants secure Belizean passports, the indictment said.
The actions contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), it said.
The act stipulates that before Chinese citizens travel to Taiwan on business, the organization in Taiwan that has invited them must apply for entry permits on the NIA Web site and provide supporting documents, including proof of employment, a guarantee, power of attorney, a business-related activity plan and itinerary and a copy of the contract, as well as the inviting organization’s company registration form and its corporate income tax return for the previous year, it said.
However, Chen’s group used their individual company seals to create fraudulent business plans and itineraries, while falsifying other documents to submit to the NIA Web site, the indictment said.
The allegedly fake documents enabled Chinese nationals identified as Zhu Naixian (祝乃賢) and Sun Tao (孫濤) to secure entry permits from the NIA and enter Taiwan in 2023, and another Chinese citizen named Lu Tao (陸濤) to gain entry into Taiwan in 2024, prosecutors said.
Another Chinese citizen allegedly involved in the scheme, Li Fengxiang (李鳳祥), was denied entry in 2023, as he is a former member of China’s National People’s Congress, prosecutors said.
While all of the members of Chen’s group were indicted, prosecutors singled out Chen, saying that his alleged actions undermined the NIA’s border management and created potential national security loopholes.
They recommended a heavy sentence for Chen.
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