Taiwan lawmaker accused of handing over state secrets to China

Taipei [Taiwan], June 21 (ANI): Prosecutors said on Saturday that they are looking into Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator Cheng Cheng-chien due to claims that he received electoral funding from Beijing and disclosed government secrets, as reported by Taipei Times.

Carol Lin, the spokesperson for the recall initiatives targeting Cheng and suspended Hsinchu mayor Ann Kao, lodged a complaint based on accusations from a whistleblower who claimed to be Cheng's former aide, alleging that Cheng had accepted financial support from the Chinese Communist Party.

The complaint also stated that Cheng allegedly directed his assistant to use his phone to respond to messages from China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) and transmit government documents to the TAO via WeChat, a messaging app popular in China, Taipei Times reported.

Additionally, Lin claimed that Cheng received kickbacks from contractors by having them pay his assistant's salaries, prosecutors noted.

Moreover, Cheng purportedly inflated his assistant's wages and neglected to provide them with mandatory labour and health insurance as mandated by law, according to Lin's complaint.

Cheng has been accused of improper personal usage of government vehicles and requesting police escorts to transport him to election and anti-recall campaign events.

The High Prosecutors' Office indicated that a team of investigators specialising in significant cases threatening national security and social stability would manage this case.

The Taipei Prosecutors' Office mentioned that it would look into whether Cheng violated the Political Donations Act, the National Security Act, and the Anti-Corruption Act.

Cheng has denied allegations of accepting Chinese funds or disclosing confidential national security information to the TAO. When asked if he had shared any information with the TAO, he responded that the office might have requested some calligraphy for "blessings," which he sent, as reported by Taipei Times.

In response to whether his campaign materials were supplied by China, Cheng acknowledged that while they were produced in China, they were sourced from Taiwanese companies. He stated that he would seek legal recourse due to "ongoing false accusations," labelling the claims made by the recall campaign group as "smear tactics." (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)