Lawyer indicted for helping Chinese enter Taiwan using false documents

Taipei, Aug. 11 (CNA) A Taiwanese lawyer has been indicted for allegedly fabricating information to help Chinese nationals enter Taiwan under false pretenses, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office said Tuesday, citing potential threats to national security.

In the indictment, prosecutors said 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 between 2023 and 2024.

Instead of visiting Taiwan for business purposes, three of the Chinese were in Taiwan to apply for a passport from Belize at the Central American country's embassy in Taiwan, prosecutors said.

Chen's group received US$80,000 in compensation for successfully helping one applicant to secure a Belize passport, prosecutors said.

Those actions violated the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, prosecutors argued in the indictment.

According to that law, before Chinese citizens coming to Taiwan on business, the organization in Taiwan inviting them should apply for their entry permits on the NIA website and include supporting documents.

They include the Chinese citizen's proof of employment, a guarantee, a power of attorney, a business-related activity plan and itinerary, a copy of the contract, the inviting organization's company registration form, and the previous year's corporate income tax return.

Chen's group, however, used their individual company seals to create fraudulent business plans and itineraries and falsify other required documents before submitting them to the NIA website, prosecutors said.

The fake documents enabled Chinese nationals identified as Zhu Naixian (祝乃賢) and Sun Tao (孫濤) to secure an entry permit from the NIA and enter Taiwan in 2023 and another Chinese citizen named Lu Tao (陸濤) to gain entry into Taiwan in 2024, according to prosecutors.

But the other Chinese citizen involved in the scheme, named Li Fengxiang (李鳳祥), was denied entry in 2023 as he used to be a member of China's National People's Congress, according to prosecutors.

While the members of Chen's group were all indicted, prosecutors singled out Chen, arguing that what he did undermined the NIA's border management and created potential national security loopholes, and they recommended a heavy sentence for Chen to the court.