Man indicted for activities on behalf on China-based digital company

Taipei, Jan. 2 (CNA) A Chinese national has been indicted for illegally setting up an office in Taiwan on behalf of a Chinese security camera giant and conducting commercial activities from that office, according to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office.

In their indictment handed down Tuesday, prosecutors said the man, identified by his surname Lou (樓), had been the sales manager for Taiwan for Hangzhou-based Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd. since February 2021.

In that role, he set up an office for Hikvision in Taipei's Nangang District without authorization from Taiwan's Investment Review Committee under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and then recruited workers and engaged in sales activities out of that office, according to prosecutors.

Those actions, the prosecutors said, were illegal under Article 40-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.

The clause says that an enterprise from China or an enterprise it invested in a third area cannot "engage in any business activities in Taiwan" unless it is "permitted by the competent authorities and has established in the Taiwan Area a branch or liaison office."

The penalty cited in the act for violating Article 40-1 is a prison term of up to three years and/or a fine of up NT$15 million.

Prosecutors also said Lou asked local distributors to delegate their recruiting rights to Hikvision and personally discussed salary issues directly with job applicants for sales positions.

Hikvision has earned notoriety as one of the world's largest manufacturers of video surveillance equipment for civilian and military purposes.

It has been put under sanctions by the American and European governments because of its alleged involvement in human rights violations and abuses in the high-tech surveillance of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.