Taiwan Patriotic Heart Association President and Chinese Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Zhou Qingjun and member and party secretary general Zhang Xiuye were sentenced by the Taipei District Court on May 18 to three years and six months in prison and three years and five months in prison, respectively, and stripped of their public powers for three years for allegedly holding a dinner party to bribe voters during the 2018 nine-in-one general election. In addition, the two were sentenced to an additional five months and six months respectively for receiving political contributions from Chinese capital in violation of the law.
According to the Taiwan Free Times, the prosecution alleged that Zhou Qingjun held a dinner party at a Japanese restaurant in the Zhongshan District of Taipei City on Oct. 1, 2018, in the name of celebrating the “69th National Day” of the Communist Party of China, while Zhang Xiuye, who was a candidate for Taipei City Council at the time, personally went on stage to call for votes and plead for support.
According to the survey, there were 56 tables at a price of NT$7,800 per table, and if we estimate that there were 10 people at each table, there might be as many as 600 people attending. The investigation found that Zhang Xiuye and others used the dinner party to promote the suspected bribery, and in February 2019 charged Zhang Xiuye, Zhou Qingjun and Zhou Qingjun’s wife, Lin Mingmei, and the campaign office director, Chen Suzheng, with violating the election strike law.
In addition to Zhou and Zhang, who were sentenced to 3 years and 6 months and 3 years and 5 months, respectively, and stripped of public power for 3 years, Lin Mingmei was also sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison and stripped of public power for 2 years, while Chen Suzheng was sentenced to 3 years and 2 months in prison and stripped of public power for 2 years.
In addition, the prosecution investigation also found that the Chinese Democratic Progressive Party opened a political contribution account and publicly raised funds on its website, but did not report to the Supervisory Yuan for permission in accordance with the law, including donations from Chinese capital amounting to $1,898,820. Zhang Xiuye, who was in charge of managing the accounts of the Patriotic Heart Association and the China Democratic Progressive Party, used the money for the operation of the Patriotic Heart Association, for organizing the Communist Party’s “National Day Dinner” and for financing Zhang Xiuye’s campaign for the Taipei City Council. The Taipei District Court sentenced Zhang Xiu Ye and Zhou Qing Jun to 5 months in prison and 6 months in jail for violating the Political Contribution Law, and to pay a fine in lieu of the prison term.
Recent Comments