Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen looks for boost from claims ‘Chinese spy’ helped her rival
- Opposition candidate Han Kuo-yu and his KMT party have tried to rebut allegations from Wang Liqiang that he worked to undermine island’s democracy and channelled funds from Beijing
- Wang is now seeking asylum in Australia and his claims have been seen as boost for the president and her independence-leaning DPP
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s re-election campaign has been given a fresh boost after a self-professed mainland Chinese spy claimed that he had worked on operations to infiltrate and disrupt the island’s democratic system.
However, the case has already become an explosive topic on the self-ruled island, with Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party using it to illustrate what they describe as a serious threat from Beijing.
While Tsai has not explicitly tied the claims to her campaign for the January 11 presidential vote, analysts believe the case is a godsend to the president, whose pledge earlier this year to prevent Beijing from swallowing up the island has acquired greater resonance with voters in recent months.
“No one can deny that China has long wanted to retake Taiwan … and for a long time, it has been a known fact that China has used spies to infiltrate Taiwan,” William Lai Ching-te, Tsai’s running mate, told a campaign rally in the southern county of Pingtung on Tuesday.