Two indicted for allegedly financing candidate using Beijing money

Taipei, Feb. 26 (CNA) A Taiwanese man and a Chinese woman have been indicted for providing funds from China to a pro-unification New Taipei City Council candidate in Taiwan's local elections in 2022, according to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office.

The office said in a statement Monday that the Taiwanese man, Sun Chih-chuan (孫志全), colluded with the Chinese woman, surnamed Da (笪), on Beijing's instructions to remit 100,000 Chinese yuan to Taiwan to support Wang Cheng (王正) of the Labor Party.

The remittance was made through various intermediaries, and ended up as a US$10,000 transfer from an account held by Da in Hong Kong to an account set up by Wang's older sister in Taiwan, prosecutors said.

They described Sun as the deputy director of the Taipei-based Chinese Youth Development Union responsible for the union's business affairs in China and Da as the director of the Federation of Hong Kong Jiangsu Youth.

Da's federation has allegedly received assignments from the United Front Work Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and is a source of infiltration under Taiwan's Anti-Infiltration Act, according to prosecutors.

Wang spent NT$342,065 of the NT$435,000 he received to purchase promotional materials for his campaign, including face masks to be distributed to voters, prosecutors said in the indictment handed down Monday.

All of those actions violated the Anti-infiltration Act and the Political Donations Act, prosecutors charged in the indictment.

Under Taiwanese law, candidates who accept political donations from residents, associations or other institutions in Hong Kong and Macau as well as China must confirm whether the donations comply with provisions in the Political Donations Act, prosecutors said.

If the donations do not conform to the regulations and cannot be returned, they shall be turned over to the Control Yuan for deposit into the National Treasury within three months after the election date, the statement said.

Sun and Da have both denied that the organizations they belong to have relationships with Beijing. Sun has argued that all he did was lend money to Wang, and Da said she merely exchanged currency for Sun.

Sun is currently being held in custody, while Da has been barred from traveling abroad.