China has accused Taiwanese authorities of “persecution” after four members of a pro-Beijing political party were detained in connection with a spying case.


Police in Taiwan arrested Wang Ping-chung, a prominent media personality, along with three colleagues from the pro-unification New Party on Tuesday.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office released a statement saying that Mr Wang and other people of interest were being investigated on suspicion of violating the National Security Act.
Taipei prosecutor Lin Chun-ting, who is leading the investigation, is also in charge of the probe into Zhou Hongxu, a Chinese student convicted in September for trying to obtain classified information and recruiting people to a spy network.
According to the Taipei Times, Mr Wang was allegedly friends with Mr Zhou and played a key role in introducing him to Taiwanese government officials.


Another detained member of the New Party, Lin Ming-cheng, told reporters after his release that he was questioned about the spying case and his relationship with Mr Zhou, but he denied the allegations.
“It is absurd for them to make a link between Zhou and us all because they found a mention of us on Zhou’s computer,” Mr Lin said, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office praised the New Party for upholding the “one China” principle in a short statement released late on Tuesday.
“Recently, the Taiwan authorities have shielded and connived with Taiwan independent splittists, and taken various moves to wantonly crack down on and persecute forces and people who uphold peaceful reunification,” it said. “We strongly condemn this and are paying close attention to developments.”
The investigation is the second in recent months into a minority party supporting unification with the Chinese mainland, and comes amid heightened tensions between the government of self-ruled Taiwan and Beijing.

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-out...124524136.html