TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — For the second time in a week, the authorities have detained a suspect who was allegedly employed by China to produce and publish fake opinion polls to influence next month’s presidential election, reports said Saturday (Dec. 23).
On Friday (Dec. 22), an online media reporter was detained after prosecutors in Taichung City alleged Chinese communist officials in Fujian Province had used him and a professor to produce polls showing Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) taking a lead over Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te (賴清德).
The same day, the Qiaotou District Prosecutors Office detained a suspect in a separate case of fake opinion polls. The man, named as Hsu Shao-tung (徐少東), served as the honorary chair of a small political party and as an adviser to an association of new migrants in Taiwan, the Liberty Times reported.
According to the investigation, China wired money to accounts held by Hsu’s son and another suspect, so they could conduct fake opinion polls and publish them online under the name of the new migrants’ association. The surveys showed up as advertisements on at least seven websites in August and September.
On Friday, prosecutors raided nine locations and called in four suspects for questioning on suspicion of having broken the Anti-Infiltration Act and the Election and Recall Act. The court approved Hsu’s detention, released his son, and bailed two other suspects for NT$200,000 (US$6,400) and NT$100,000.