Taiwan has sentenced a retired lieutenant general and charged two other men with helping mainland China run its interference operations on the self-ruled island, including attempts to sway Taiwan’s democratic elections.
On Dec. 3, Republic of China (Taiwan) authorities sentenced former Lt. Gen. Luo Wen-shan to 30 months in prison for having accepted mainland Chinese money to promote a pro-Beijing politician. Also facing charges of mainland espionage are Cheng Chao-ming, chairman of the Taiwan Labor Party, and his son Cheng Chih-wen, a retired commander in the ROC missile forces.
The three cases come amid growing concerns that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recruits and manipulates senior Taiwan elites to subvert local politics.
Weeks earlier, Wang Liqiang, who defected to Australia and is seeking asylum as a former Chinese spy, spoke at length to the media about the CCP’s clandestine activities abroad. After Wang implicated his former employer Xiang Xin and Xiang’s wife Kung Ching as having meddled in Taiwan’s elections, they were arrested in Taiwan and put under investigation by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office.
Political Donations
The Taipei District Court sentenced Luo Wen-shan to two and a half years in prison. In addition, the court confiscated illegally acquired funds, including 8.385 million New Taiwan dollars (around $275,220) from the account of the Chinese Huangpu Four Seas Alliance Association, of which Luo is chair, as well as 13,110 New Taiwan dollars (around $430) from his private account.Luo, 83, moved to Taiwan with his father, former general of the Republic of China Army Luo You-lun, when he was a teenager.
Luo held a variety of high-ranking posts, including administrator of the Republic of China Military Academy, administrative deputy minister of national defense, and membership in the third convocation of the National Assembly. After retiring, Luo chaired the Huangpu Association and was deputy director of the Huang Fu-hsing faction of the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT), one of Taiwan’s two major political parties.
According to the verdict, Luo thrice received political donations from Hong Kong businessman Hui Chi-Ming amounting to a total of 2 million Hong Kong dollars ($255,500) to the Huangpu association between 2008 to 2010.
Hui immigrated to Hong Kong from Guangdong Province in the late 1980s, and chairs the Hong Kong Hoifu Energy Group and Sino Union Petroleum & Chemical International. Among other positions, he also holds membership in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, the Standing Committee of the Shaanxi CPPCC, and is a senior economic consultant to Shaanxi provincial government.
Luo also received 137,500 HKD ($17,563) from Ho Biu, a normal Hongkonger in August 2012, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
Luo claimed that the money from Hui and Ho were used to pay the campaign advertisements for Ma Ying-jeou, former Kuomintang candidate during Taiwan elections, as well as the cost of Hui’s Taiwan trips when he visited Taiwan and met with Ma and Lien Chan, former Kuomintang chairman and former Taiwan premier.
