Former member of the People’s Party in Taiwan, Ma Zhiwei, ran for the Taoyuan City Legislative Yuan as an independent candidate earlier this year, accused of receiving funding from the Chinese Communist Party to run for office. The Taoyuan District Court concluded on the 7th that Ma Zhiwei was guilty of illegally collecting and using personal data in violation of the Personal Information Protection Act, and sentenced her to 8 months in prison. The criminal proceeds not confiscated shall be seized or recovered in accordance with the law.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutor’s Office brought charges against former legislative candidate Ma Zhiwei on March 1 for suspected violations of the Personal Information Protection Act, the Anti-Infiltration Act related to receiving funding from opaque sources for election campaigns, and the National Security Law for disclosing confidential documents to foreign hostile forces. Taking into account her poor attitude after committing the offenses and receiving over 1 million New Taiwan Dollars (approximately 32,400 US Dollars) in funding from the CCP for her campaign, the prosecutor requested a sentence of 3 years and 8 months in prison plus a fine of 2 million New Taiwan Dollars (approximately 64,900 US Dollars).
Ma Zhiwei was found by investigators to have met with representatives from two Taiwanese working units in mainland China in 2023, where she agreed to provide political intelligence to them in exchange for funding and to participate in elections with the aim of infiltrating the Taiwan parliament, posing a threat to Taiwan’s sovereignty, freedom, and democratic constitutional system.
The Taoyuan District Court held that Ma Zhiwei, before April 2023 when she traveled to mainland China, met with individuals known as “Ice Sister” and “Ah Hao” through a man named Hou. She provided information about personnel from the government of the Republic of China and the “September 111 Central Agency Parliament Contact List,” and received financial assistance from “Ice Sister” and “Ah Hao,” causing harm to the privacy and autonomy of the contact persons listed in the aforementioned contact list.
The court also found that Ma Zhiwei, despite knowing that “Ice Sister” and “Ah Hao” were not Taiwanese parliament staff and had no necessity to communicate with personnel from central government agencies, transmitted a large amount of contact information from the list to them and received monetary support in return, demonstrating her unlawful intentions. Ma Zhiwei violated the Personal Information Protection Act by illicitly collecting and using personal data outside government institutions. The court took into consideration her denial of the crimes committed, which clearly showed her failure to acknowledge and confront her own wrongdoing, therefore concluding the trial and sentencing her to 8 months in prison, with the criminal proceeds being confiscated or recovered in accordance with the law as a deterrent measure.