TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Supreme Court has upheld a prison sentence of two years and eight months for a legislative candidate who accepted funding from China in return for sensitive information, reports said Thursday.
Ma Chih-wei (馬治薇) received NT$1.05 million (US$32,500) from China to fund her run as an independent for a seat in the 2024 legislative elections in Taoyuan, per Liberty Times. She visited China several times during the year in the run-up to the elections, accepting payments in US dollars and cryptocurrencies from security officials.
In return, she supplied them with business cards, names, addresses, and telephone numbers of government officials including employees of the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Security Bureau. She was detained on March 1, 2024, after losing the election.
Taoyuan District Court sentenced Ma to eight months in prison for breaking the Personal Data Protection Act, but the Taiwan High Court added two years to her jail term for breaking the Anti-Infiltration Act. The court reasoned Ma had clearly become an instrument of Chinese infiltration and would have provided significant amounts of confidential information to China if she had been elected to the Legislative Yuan.
The Supreme Court agreed Thursday, upholding the High Court verdict and rejecting Ma’s final appeal. The court also notified prosecutors to take the necessary precautions to prevent her from fleeing the country, according to Liberty Times.
