TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Supreme Court has rejected the final appeal of Chinese spouse Zhou Manzhi (周滿芝), upholding her eight-year prison sentence for forming pro-China groups, reports said Wednesday.
Zhou, chair of the Taiwan New Immigrants’ Association, accepted funding from China to set up groups that spread Chinese Communist Party propaganda, the Taiwan High Court in Kaohsiung ruled in January, overturning an earlier acquittal. The court found that she had violated the National Security Act.
Zhou appealed the eight-year sentence, but the Supreme Court rejected the appeal, Liberty Times reported Wednesday. The court reportedly asked prosecutors to take measures to prevent Zhou from fleeing the country.
Zhou joined the Shaanxi Province Patriotic Volunteers Association in China before moving to Taiwan in 2014 after marrying a Taiwanese national. She chaired groups for foreign spouses in Taiwan but also visited China to contact united front officials, per Liberty Times.
The Supreme Court concluded that Zhou had tried to abuse the freedoms offered by Taiwan’s democracy to replace the constitutional order with a communist system. The court said she had also hidden the fact that she was following the instructions of a communist-controlled group in China.
