Taiwan Launches Full-Scale Investigation into Chinese Funding Ahead of January Presidential Election Next Year

by Lee Hyunwoo

Published 25 Apr.2023 15:39(KST)

With Taiwan's presidential and legislative (parliamentary) elections scheduled for January next year, suspicions have arisen that China is providing financial support to pro-China candidates, prompting Taiwanese authorities to launch an investigation into these allegations. Taiwan's Ministry of Justice has announced it will apply the 'Anti-Infiltration Act' to block the possibility of Chinese election interference by preventing political intervention from external hostile forces. The conflict within Taiwan's political sphere over pro-China and anti-China factions is also expected to intensify.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

On the 25th, local Taiwanese media such as Liberty Times reported that the Investigation Bureau under Taiwan's Ministry of Justice, which investigates national security-related crimes, detected information regarding Chinese financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises in central and southern Taiwan regions like Taichung and Changhua, and has begun investigating allegations that Chinese funds were channeled to specific candidates.

According to the Investigation Bureau, it is known that China instructed some Taiwanese businesspeople to provide political donations under false names to candidates who support unification with China. China is reportedly using a combination of hardline measures such as tax audits and fines on Chinese branches of Taiwanese SMEs, along with incentives, to induce these businesses to establish connections that would deliver Chinese political funds to Taiwan's political arena.

The Taiwanese Investigation Bureau has particularly identified the identities of entrepreneurs who frequently travel across the Taiwan Strait for business, and is not ruling out the application of the Anti-Infiltration Act, along with investigations into tax evasion and violations of anti-money laundering laws, against them.

The Anti-Infiltration Act, passed in December 2019 under the leadership of Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), is legislation designed to completely block political funding from hostile foreign forces. Politicians who receive funds from groups linked to China face imprisonment of up to five years or fines of up to 10 million New Taiwan Dollars (approximately 430 million Korean Won).

At the time, Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers strongly opposed the bill, calling it an anachronistic anti-communist law that severely infringed on political freedom, and even boycotted the vote. As a result, the bill was passed solely by the DPP.