Could the Farce of the Communist Spy Case Duplicate the Impact of the Bulletgate Case of 2004?

 Could the Farce of the Communist Spy Case Duplicate the Impact of the Bulletgate Case of 2004?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

November 27, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Wang Liqiang, a Mainland male who self-proclaimed to be a "communist spy", sought political asylum in Australia, claiming that he had carried out the abduction case of executives of a Causeway Bay bookstore in Hong Kong, and remitted huge amounts of money to “absorb” Taiwan media outlets and intervene in elections. As his version was filled with loopholes, the Mainland's public security department immediately stated that he was a "fraudster" on the run: paradoxically, a DPP legislator immediately pushed for an "Anti-Infiltration Bill", demanding its immediate passage. What is more intriguing is that Xiang Xin, chairman of Hong Kong's "China Innovation Investment", whom Wang Liqiang named as his boss, was intercepted with his wife at the Taoyuan International Airport [when they prepared to leave the country] and were referred to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office for interrogation. Only over forty days before the general elections, the developments of this case became the talk of the town.  

These dramatic developments have exceeded the tension of a "farce of espionage", making people associate it with the 3/19 Shooting Incident [the Bulletgate Case of 2004]. In the 3/19 Shooting Incident, on the eve of the 2004 general elections, whether the assailant was Chen Yi-hsiung, who later “committed suicide”, or a self-staged incident as the Blue camp had questioned, the public would probably never find the truth. The only thing that could be ascertained is that the Chen Shui-bian government, from Chiou I-jen, then secretary general of the National Security Council, on down, fully utilized this incident, and through deliberately ambiguous rhetoric and manipulations, ignited an impact on society, harvesting victory in the general elections the following day.

Since Tsai Ing-wen took complete control of government, she has thoroughly "used her powers to the extreme", exercising concentration of power in the name of democracy. In the forthcoming general elections, she has been exhausting all means to safeguard her political powers. Under the atmospherics of "hating the DPP" permeating society last year, the DPP suffered heavy setbacks; however, facing electoral defeat, the Tsai government did not stop manipulating its anti-China ideology, but conversely used it as the "strongest target drug", even dispensing the maximum dosage at the crucial moment of the electoral campaign, catalyzing the public’s Sinophobic sentiments in order to help preserve political power.

Over the past several months, national security agencies have repeatedly released news about "Mainland China’s interference in elections"; now the time has arrived, verily a veritable human “spy” has appeared before our eyes, and does so through an international on-line format. How fantastic it is! Considering the electoral race as a "civil war" and "cutting the throat of one’s political foe to the end” have always been the DPP's approaches of election campaign and through these approaches, it has accumulated many successes. However, this time, by tossing out a fraudster communist spy, whether it could harvest the shocking and intimidating effect of a 3/19 Shooting Incident, it all depends on whether the public would take the bait.

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