A Taiwanese candidate for mayor of Taipei has been charged with bribing voters called to the polls by offering them Chinese-made anti-Covid tests, the prosecution announced on Tuesday.
Beijing considers the island of Taiwan to be part of its territory and has vowed to regain control of it, by force if necessary.
Chiu Jui-lien and her husband are the first to be prosecuted under the "anti-infiltration law" passed shortly before the 2020 presidential election and intended to block Chinese influence in Taiwan.
This law, carried by the party of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, prohibits “ hostile
” foreign forces
from campaigning, making political donations, exerting pressure or disseminating false information in connection with elections.
Chiu Jui-lien, a candidate for mayor of Taipei in the November 26 local elections, and her husband were charged on Monday with distributing Chinese-made Covid-19 tests for the purpose of soliciting votes, reported the Shihlin prosecutors' office in a statement.
These free tests had been provided by the Pingtan Island Experimental Zone, launched in 2019 in the Chinese region of Fujian, close to the Taiwanese coast, with the objective of stimulating its own development but also its ties with Taiwan.
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The couple had imported 6,000 of the tests, bypassing the approval required by Taipei for any import over 100 kits, prosecutors said.
The candidate had offered them to the inhabitants in exchange for their votes during the ballot of November 26, which she finally lost.
The couple were "
funded by an undercover source
" to commit an act of corruption and violated regulations on importing and supplying medical items, prosecutors added.
The indictment seeks to "
ensure that the elections (...) will not be infiltrated or interfered with by hostile foreign forces in order to maintain a fair electoral climate
," the statement added.
After the November 26 election, the Taiwanese president announced that she was stepping down as head of the ruling party, the DPP, which lost four of the six main cities of the island of 23 million inhabitants. , including the capital Taipei.
The Kuomintang, the main opposition party, more favorable to a rapprochement with China, for its part won or retained 13 cities or provinces, against five for the DPP.
Tsai Ing-wen will remain president of the island, however, a position she has held since 2016, until the end of her second and final four-year term in May 2024.
