The Taiwanese independent legislator Kao Chin Su Mei has been formally accused this Friday of alleged corruption offenses and breaches of national security, after the Justice system attributed to her the receipt of funds from Beijing with the aim of creating “Chinese influence networks” in Taiwan, a territory that Chinese authorities consider a province under their sovereignty.
In a statement, the Taiwanese Prosecutors’ Office has requested that she be sentenced to 14 years in prison for “attempting to establish political networks to also influence parliamentary proceedings,” according to information released by the news agency CNA.
Along with Kao, three other collaborators have been prosecuted, who are also accused of having unlawfully accepted around 170 million Taiwanese dollars (4.6 million euros) sent from China.
The indictment also claims that the lawmaker, 61, would have acted in accordance with instructions from Chinese officials to intervene in Parliament on various issues — including opposition to the purchase of armaments, the situation in the Taiwan Strait, and various defense and foreign policy matters — with the aim of conditioning the processing of laws.
After the charges became known, Kao issued a statement in which she denies having created a structure on behalf of the Government of China or having received funding from Beijing, and stresses that the allegations against her are unfounded.
She has also accused the Prosecutors’ Office of rushing to present the case in order to conceal its inability to stop another of the alleged individuals involved, who left Taiwan after being released on bail.
In the same vein, she has rejected suspicions about her position regarding the island’s acquisition of armaments and has emphasized that this stance does not reflect interests of Beijing, but only her own ideas, which she says “she has held for a long time.”