Prosecutors believe alleged Chinese spymaster's luxury towers in Taipei are 'bases' for espionage in Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/27
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Prosecutors have discovered that a suspected spymaster and his wife have spent hundreds of millions of Taiwan dollars purchasing two luxury apartment towers, which investigators suspect were used as a "bases" for their espionage operations.

Citing a source in the Prosector's Office, TVBS reported that China Innovation Investment Ltd. (CIIL, 中國創新投資) CEO and alleged spymaster Xiang Xin (向心) and his wife, alternate board member Kung Ching (龔青), purchased two apartment towers in Taipei's Xinyi District three years ago, but never moved in. Investigators now believe the couple used the luxury towers as "bases for development in Taiwan."

Prosecutors determined the couple spent hundreds of millions of Taiwan dollars to purchase two luxury apartment buildings. The building in Taipei's Xinyi District is 12 years old and has 122 units, each covering about 90 ping (a ping equals 3.3 square meters), with the highest selling rate per ping being NT$1.68 million, according to the report.

The couple is said to have rarely lived in the buildings and instead chose to rent them out. In addition, the properties were not listed in their name, but rather a third person.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: =2019/11/27
By: Godfrey Gao

Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) Godfrey Gao (高以翔), 35, a Canadian- Taiwanese actor, was confirmed dead

by his entertainment agency after collapsing while participating in a variety show in China Wednesday.

Gao collapsed and his heart stopped beating for about three minutes during filming for his appearance on action variety show "Chase Me" produced by Zhejiang Satellite TV in Ningbo early Wednesday morning.

Gao was rushed to hospital and underwent emergency treatment for almost three hours, but doctors were unable to resuscitate him and he was officially pronounced dead, according to JetStar, his agency.

The cause of the actor's death remains unclear.    [FULL  STORY]

VERIFYING CLAIMS: Xiang Xin denied knowing William Wang Liqiang, but said that he travels to Taiwan monthly to meet businesspeople in search of investment opportunities

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 28, 2019
By: Huang Chieh and Chien Li-chung  /  Staff reporters

The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that it does not rule out the possibility of

requesting evidence from the Australian Attorney-General’s Department to corroborate allegations made by self-confessed Chinese spy William Wang Liqiang (王立強).

Taipei and Canberra do not have a mutual judicial assistance agreement, but the office can request the information on a case-by-case basis.

The office yesterday questioned China Innovation Investment Ltd (中國創新投資) executive director Xiang Xin (向心) and his wife, acting director Kung Ching (龔青), for more than two hours, reasserting that it has jurisdiction over the case.

After questioning on Tuesday, the couple was barred from leaving the nation over an alleged breach of the National Security Act (國家安全法).    [FU LL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 26 November, 2019
By: Natalie Tso

Women's groups began a 16-day campaign against gender-based violence on Monday by launching sky lanterns in Pingxi, New Taipei City. The campaign began on the November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and ends on December 10, International Human Rights Day.     [FULL  STORY]

Is Taiwan For Sale?

The News Lens
Date: 2019/11/26
By: Raphael Lin
Translated by:  Brian Hioe

As something like a magical spell in Taiwanese politics at this point, the “1992 Consensus”

emphasizes on the existence of “One China” but each side of the Taiwan-China straits has “respective interpretations” of what it means. Individuals from all walks of life have fought over the meaning of the “1992 Consensus.”

To clarify what the “1992 Consensus” means and whether this notion helps or hurts Taiwan’s future, we shall begin by unpacking the origin of the 1992 Consensus, and determine whether such consensus even exists.

The historical reality of the 1992 talks

The “1992 talks” consisted of two talks, both of which took place in Hong Kong. They were meant to discuss “practical matters” regarding document verification and registered mail services between Taiwan and China.

These two talks took place in March and October respectively. During the second talk, which is what we normally refer to when we talk about the “1992 talks,” Taiwan was represented by Xu Hui-you (許惠祐), then-chairperson of Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF); and China was represented by Zhou Ning (周寧) from the advisory board of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS).    [FULL  STORY]

Senator Ted Cruz drumming up support for Taiwan SOS Act, urges US government to stand up to China

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/11/26
By: Ching-Tse Cheng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer\

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is planning to introduce the Taiwan Symbols of Sovereignty Act (Taiwan SOS Act) to allow the display of Taiwan's national flag at U.S. government agencies and on the uniforms of Taiwan representatives working in the country.

According to ETtoday, Christian Whiton, a senior adviser to former U.S. President George W. Bush and President Donald Trump, said Friday (Nov. 22) that Cruz has been advocating for the bill. He said Cruz hopes the U.S. government can partially "peel back" its restrictions on Taiwan.

In 2015, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. (TECRO) held a flag raising ceremony at the Twin Oaks estate in Washington D.C., causing the Chinese government to express its dissatisfaction. Consequently, the Obama administration established the Guidelines on the Relationship with Taiwan, which prohibited Taiwanese flags from being worn or displayed in any U.S. government agencies.

If approved, the Taiwan SOS Act would allow the country's flag to be worn on military uniforms and at any government agency in the U.S. The new bill would also grant the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Defense permission to post content related to Taiwan's sovereignty on social media.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/11/26
By: Lin Chang-shuan and Joseph Yeh

Taipei, Nov. 26 (CNA) An amendment to the University Act that would allow naturalized Taiwanese citizens to apply to universities under a special admissions system similar to the one for overseas Chinese or foreign students passed the Legislative Yuan Tuesday.

According to the author of the legislation, ruling Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Lee Li-feng (李麗芬), naturalized citizens who take Taiwan's standardized university entrance exams are often at a disadvantage because they might lack Chinese language ability.

Currently, under Article 25 of the University Act, certain categories of students, such as overseas Chinese and foreign students, can be admitted to local universities with exemptions from the entrance requirements that govern the admissions process for Taiwanese students.

Students in such categories are handled according to separate Ministry of Education (MOE) regulations.    [FULL  STORY]

‘MIDDLEMAN’: Self-proclaimed Chinese spy William Wang Liqiang identified the couple as intelligence operatives, saying that he helped them conduct operations

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 27, 2019
By: Huang Chieh, Chien Li-chung and Dennis Xie  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

Two executives of a Chinese company based in Hong Kong who have allegedly tried to influence

Taiwanese elections were yesterday barred from leaving the nation following their detention at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Sunday.

China Innovation Investment Ltd (中國創新投資) executive director Xiang Xin (向心) and his wife, acting director Kung Ching (龔青), were detained at the airport ahead of a flight to Hong Kong on suspicions that they breached the National Security Act (國家安全法).

Self-proclaimed Chinese spy William Wang Liqiang (王立強) on Saturday told Australian media that China Innovation Investment was a shell company “whose founding mission was to infiltrate Hong Kong, but was later tasked with influencing elections in Taiwan.”

Following Wang’s allegations, Taiwanese authorities on Thursday last week found that Xiang and Kung entered Taiwan on their Hong Kong passports, with a return flight scheduled for Sunday.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 25 November, 2019
By: Natalie Tso

Taiwan’s National Security Bureau is working with international partners to verify information leaked by

a Chinese defector about Beijing’s interference in Taiwan’s elections.

China claims the defector, Wang Liqiang, is a fraud. Wang’s interview with Australian news program 60 Minutes was broadcast on Sunday.

Wang claims that he helped plan recent Hong Kong college campus incidents and a kidnapping of a co-owner of Lee Bo, a Causeway Bay bookstore. He also says he set up a cyber army in Taiwan to help Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu win next year’s presidential election.

When asked by reporter Nick Mackenzie why people should believe him, Wang said that if his comments weren’t true, the Australian government wouldn’t be protecting him. Australian intelligence expert Phillip Gregory said on the program that Wang’s remarks were credible.
[FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2019/11/25
By: Lin Jia-he (Assistant Professor at the National Cheng Chi University Department of Law}

Within the scope of authority of the president as specified by the constitution, would it be possible for a president to commit treason and get away with it?

Written by Lin Jia-he (Assistant Professor at the National Cheng Chi University Department of Law)
Translated by Brian Hioe

Does Taiwan's president have the authority to "sell" the country? Politically and socially speaking, this is not easy to explain, and legally speaking, this is also a hard-to-answer question.

The question in dispute here is not whether the president could abuse his or her power, but whether an action constitutes as committing treason. If we are to focus on the question of whether the president could betray Taiwan, then this becomes a harder question.    [FULL  STORY]