TAIPEI—Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s ruling party denounced China as an “enemy of democracy” on Nov. 25 following fresh claims of Chinese interference in the island’s politics ahead of presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 11.
China claims Taiwan as its sacred territory and to be brought under Beijing’s control by force if necessary.
The allegations, reported by Australian media, were made by a Chinese asylum seeker in Australia who said he was a Chinese spy.
Cho Jung-tai, chairman of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party, which favors Taiwan’s formal independence, said there needed to be further investigations, noting that a lot of fake news came from China.
“The enemy of democracy is China. At present Taiwan’s most ambitious opponent, competitor, is also China,” Cho told a news conference in Taipei.
Taiwan’s presidential office cited Tsai as saying on Monday that the allegations were being probed, and that people should not reach conclusions before a complete investigation was done.
Among several allegations leveled, the would-be defector said he had helped guide positive media attention toward certain Taiwanese politicians, including President Tsai’s main opponent, Han Kuo-yu of the China-friendly Kuomintang Party.
The Kuomintang’s Han said he would drop out of the election if he has taken any money from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Separately, Taiwan is investigating two directors of a Hong Kong-listed company which was named in the Australian reports as being involved in Communist Party infiltration of Hong Kong universities and media, the Justice Ministry’s Investigation Bureau said on Monday, without giving details.
Wang said he was part of an intelligence operation working within Hong Kong-listed China Innovation Investment Limited to infiltrate Hong Kong universities and media with pro-Communist Party operatives to counter the territory’s democracy movement.
The company said that it had received notification from Executive Director Xiang Xin and alternate Director Kung Ching that they had been about to leave Taipei Taoyuan Airport when Taiwanese investigators requested their cooperation in an “investigation on the matter of the news reports.”
“In fact, Mr. Xiang and Mrs. Kung knew nothing about the issues exposed in the news reports,” the statement said. It said both directors had engaged Taiwan lawyers to provide assistance.
It was not immediately clear who their lawyers were.
The company declined to provide further details beyond what was in the statement.
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