Taipei, April 13 (CNA) The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Sunday expelled a former assistant of Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Taiwan’s current national security chief and former foreign minister, from the party over the former’s alleged involvement in a Chinese espionage case.
The DPP’s headquarters in Yilan County announced the expulsion following an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the case involving Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑), who worked for Wu during his tenure as Taiwan’s top diplomat between 2018 and 2024.
Chiu Chia-chin (邱嘉進), head of the DPP’s Yilan headquarters, said the decision was unanimous, citing Ho’s alleged actions as severely damaging to the party’s reputation and “running counter to the DPP’s core values of freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”
Taipei prosecutors detained Ho on Thursday after searching his residence.
Ho’s arrest adds to a growing list of individuals suspected of spying for Chinese intelligence services while working for senior DPP government officials, which has been in power since 2016.
Other suspects in the case include Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨), who worked as an adviser in President Lai Ching-te’s (賴清德) office; Chiu Shih-yuan (邱世元), former deputy head of the DPP’s Taiwan Institute of Democracy, and Huang Chu-jung (黃取榮), assistant to DPP New Taipei Councilor Lee Yu-tien (李余典).
According to the prosecutors, Huang is believed to have been recruited by Beijing’s intelligence services while doing business in China.
Prosecutors allege that after returning to Taiwan, Huang started working with Ho, Wu Shang-yu and Chiu to gather confidential information about Lai and other top officials.
According to a Chinese-language Liberty Times report on Sunday, Wu first hired Ho when he began his tenure as National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general under then President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in May 2016.
Before recruitment, Ho cleared background and security checks conducted by the National Security Bureau and the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau.
However, as Ho was not vetted further following the initial check, he did not have permission to access more confidential information, the report said.
Ho later followed Wu to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) when Wu took up the post as the nation’s top diplomat in February 2018.
According to MOFA, Ho left the job as Wu’s assistant in March 2024, two months before Wu left his foreign minister post to become NSC secretary-general again under Tsai’s successor, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德).
The Liberty Times quoted unnamed sources familiar with the matter as saying the case of Ho exposed a loophole in the government’s background and security check system that should be addressed.
When asked for comment, MOFA told CNA on Sunday that a standard background and security check was conducted on Ho before he was hired as a contract-based assistant to then-Foreign Minister Wu.
However, Ho did not have to go through more in-depth higher-level background and security vetting, which is compulsory for all high-level diplomats, MOFA said in a statement.
MOFA added that it also conducts regular checks of all staff, including contract-based workers, in accordance with the Public Functionaries Merit Evaluation Act and related ministry regulations.
