Source: Global Times [Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Lifei and Li Yao] The relationship between Taiwan's underworld and politics has been constantly being cut off. Tsai Ing-wen has become more and more confused since she came to power. Her self-proclaimed "relatively goo

Source: Global Times

[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Lifei and Li Yao] The relationship between Taiwan's underworld and politics has been constantly being cut off. Tsai Ing-wen has become more and more confused since she came to power. Her self-proclaimed "relatively good public security" was shattered by the continuous gunfire. This year, not only were shooting cases and fraud cases on the island hit the highest level in history, but there were also police killings, the "Taiwanese version of Cambodia case" and 88 bullet shootings in Tainan. High-level police officials were also exposed to a series of scandals such as secret meetings with gangsters in luxury homes and guesthouses. It can be said that Taiwan’s corruption of public security is unreliable, and the DPP cannot refuse to blame.

There was a case in less than four days

Recently, the whole of Taiwan can be described as "black shadows and gunfire". Late at night on November 16, a shooting occurred near Suao Railway Station in Yilan County. Chen made an appointment with Wu to negotiate on Taiping Road because of a holiday. As a result, Chen directly took out a gun to intimidate him, and fired the gun. The bullet shot through the iron rolling door of a house, causing a person in the house to be shot in the abdomen. A group of people fled the scene after the incident. In the early morning of the 17th, the police solved the case and seized a non-standard short gun and a magazine. The entire case was transferred to the Criminal Law for attempted murder and violation of the regulations on guns, artillery, ammunition, and knife control.

If you look at the data in the past six months, there will be more shootings on the island. On July 14, a former employee of Kangjian Biotechnology Company in Caotun Town, Nantou County was dissatisfied with the former boss, and broke into the company with a gun and killed everyone he saw. Four people including the department director and accountant were shot and killed. The 81-year-old person in charge was shot and stuck in the head, and he saved his life after rescue. On July 24, 41-year-old chef Lin believed that Zeng, the owner of a braised food stall in Tanzi District, Taichung City, had an affair with his ex-wife, and fired three shots at Zeng in the head with a gun. On August 17, 57-year-old Zhu Guojiang asked Wang for compensation of NT$5 NT$6 for no results due to an investment dispute. He broke into the Zhonghe Memorial Hospital Affiliated to Kaohsiung Medical University with a gun, and shot Wang twice in the head and chest to death. On August 30, Dai Mingquan, president of the Hsinchu Branch of the Sun Association, nicknamed "Nanliao Country", was shot 10 times in a close range by the gunman. Two days later, Su Baiyuan of the fraud group shot and killed two men and fled.

On November 8, a street shooting broke out in Kaohsiung City, and the suspect fired 15 shots in a row. The police seized 8 guns and nearly 100 bullets from this shooting, including the M4, M5 spear and palm thunder with powerful firepower. At around 3 a.m. on November 10, dense gunshots rang out in Tainan City: a man and an unknown gunman rode a motorcycle. He first went to the office of a company in District 6, and aimed at the building with a long gun. Then he went to the service office of Tainan City Councilor Xie Caiwang to fire 30 bullets. The "killing police and robbing guns" that shocked the island this year also happened in Tainan. On August 22, two police officers from Tainan Police Bureau handled a motorcycle theft case, which was killed by the suspect with a knife, and their police guns and 24 bullets were also stolen.

In fact, in recent years, shootings in Taiwan have not stopped. In August 2020, Chen Zhihan, an internet celebrity on the island nicknamed "Courtessor", was shot in Linkou, Taipei. The gunman fired three shots in a row. He was shot twice, and he was shot in his right hand and right thigh and fell to the ground. In February 2021, a man surnamed Cai from Tainan City shot and killed Chen, a gangster boss, at close range. In addition, Li, a 57-year-old man suspected of kidnapping a wealthy businessman named Ke in Chiayi County, fled to Kaohsiung at the time on March 2 and was intercepted and rounded up by the police. A gunfight broke out between the two sides, and Li was finally shot and killed. Even the DPP’s own people can’t stand the record like

. The party's "legislator" He Zhiwei said that from 2017 to 2022, a total of 9,290 guns and nearly 320,000 ammunition were seized in Taiwan, and the proliferation of guns has become a daily routine in Taiwan. In addition, there were 100 shootings across Taiwan in 2021, setting a new high in six years, with an average of less than 4 days. Kuomintang Taipei City Councilman Wang Hongwei said that the Nantou family massacre, execution-style shooting in Kaohsiung Hospital and Tainan police killing cases were all over Taiwan, and "the dilemma of shooting everywhere is the Ministry of the Interior and the Police Affairs Office are even more responsible." Some netizens mocked, "I thought Taiwan was a society with good public security, but I found that I only had no guns."

The legal regulations are strict on the surface but are useless

If we only look at the legal regulations, Taiwan actually has strict laws in regulating the use of guns.According to the "Guns, Ammunition and Knife Control Regulations" on the island, those who manufacture, sell or transport standard or non-standard pen guns, gas guns, anesthesia guns, hunting guns, air guns, etc. that can fire metal or bullets with lethality will be sentenced to life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment of more than 5 years, and a fine of less than NT$10 million; transfer, rent or lend the above without permission. Those who have guns and cannons shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 5 years and shall be fined not more than NT$10 million; those who are intent to provide for crimes by themselves or others and commit the first two items shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment of not more than NT$7 years and shall be fined not more than NT$10 million; those who have held, stored or intend to sell guns and cannons listed in the first item without permission shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than NT$3 years and not more than 10 years and shall be fined not more than NT$7 million. It can be said that in Taiwan, only military, police, minority groups, etc. are allowed to carry guns.

But under such strict regulations on the surface, why do shootings in Taiwan still occur frequently? Over the years, the island's media and public opinion have analyzed this. The mainstream view believes that there are three major reasons: First, Taiwan is surrounded by the sea and it is difficult to prevent gun smuggling. In the past, most illegal guns were smuggled into the country from Southeast Asia through Kaohsiung. In recent years, Taiwan police have successively cracked nearly 100 kinds of gun smuggling cases in more than 50 countries and regions including Brazil, the United States, Belgium, , Belgium, , Argentina, Italy, etc. For some criminals on the island, they can get black guns as long as they have money.

Second, Taiwan's underground arsenal can transform toy guns into weapons, and even nail guns for renovation and decoration, which has a lot of lethality and simple materials. Taiwan's "Dongsen News Cloud" quoted a senior criminal police officer on the island in March last year that the raw materials for early modification guns mostly came from imitation guns that can be filled with gunpowder and sound and light effects. In recent years, just go online or go to the model store to legally purchase operating guns, and then let people with a little mechanical knowledge simply transform them, and "buy a modified gun for more than NT$50,000, which is cheaper than a motorcycle."

Third, it is difficult to control online sales. According to Taiwan’s Yahoo Chimo News in August this year, Taichung City Councilman Chen Wenzheng criticized that advertisements selling guns can be seen on many auction websites on the island. As long as you pay, you can receive parts and ammunition sent out in batches by the underground arsenal, and the gun buyer will assemble it into a lethal pistol. DPP legislator He Zhiwei also disclosed that in the Facebook sports goods exchange group, people can be seen directly selling offensive guns that "can penetrate the door of the SUV", and sellers will even actively promote "need a pistol or a long shotgun". This situation makes the black and white legal provisions in black and white.

In addition to the above reasons that directly affect the number of shootings, there are also some opinions that the implementation of "death abolishment" (abolition of the death penalty) by politicians on the island is also considered to be a major social background behind the proliferation of shootings. According to Taiwan's China Times in September this year, many people in the Taiwan police still believe that the death penalty has a certain effect on major crimes. Although the "Abolished Death Alliance" on the island quoted overseas information and emphasized that there is no correlation between the death penalty and the number of shooting cases, some senior police believe that they ignore the number of deaths in the shooting cases; if they killed two people on the island in the early years, they would be sentenced to death, but now the murderer who killed red-eyed may be fearless. Anyway, he has already taken action, and there is no difference between killing several people, and he will almost never be sentenced to death, and the crime is even more brutal.

DPP authorities support the underworld

It is not difficult to see from the shooting cases on the island over the years that in addition to some personal revenge and fighting, it is more related to underground forces and gangs; in other words, Taiwan's suppression of illegal civilian guns has not been effective, which is in line with the rampant underworld forces. Why can’t a series of practices and anti-gang actions suppress the underworld? The long-term collusion between political and criminal gangs and the proliferation of " black gold " on the island are undoubtedly the most fundamental reasons.

Korean Party "legislator" Li Dewei said on the 15th that Zhao Jieyou, who was formerly the general counsel for Tsai Ing-wen's Taipei City campaign and the representative of the Democratic Progressive Party's Taipei City Party, was involved in violent debt collection and drug cases. During the election schedule of the Democratic Progressive Party's Taipei City Mayor Chancellor Chen Shizhongfu, you can always see the figure of former "national policy consultant" Huang Chengguo. He was the chairman of the Taipei City Party Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party and was certified by the court as the eldest brother of the Wenshan Association of the gang organization "Tiandao League". Li Dewei sarcastically said that Tsai Ing-wen shouted to "end black gold and win back justice", but "black gold is by your side." Zeng Mingzong, the convener of the Kuomintang’s Party’s League, asked, “Who is condoning “black gold” and endangering society?

There are many people within the Democratic Progressive Party who belong to "gangsters in politics". For example, Ke Jianming, the convener of the Party and League of the Legislative Yuan, is known as the "Obai" in Taiwan's political arena. He is also one of the few politicians on the island who can call the "Heavenly Dao Alliance", "Bamboo Gang", and "Four Sea Gang" at the same time. He is the real "gangster godfather". Against this background, the DPP’s party certificate has become the “amulet” of the underworld. In early 2019, a police attack occurred in Wanhua District, Taipei City. The man involved in the case later showed his party certificate online and blatantly shouted, "Thank you for this amulet, I was allowed to go home to sleep on bail that day." On October 19 this year, Qiu Guolong, a 57-year-old veteran of the "Wanguo Gang", believed that he was suppressed by the gang. He committed suicide after shooting three people in Ximending and Qingshan Palace in Taipei, causing the gang background of the Qingshan Palace to resurface. Taiwanese media said that the "border-abiding ceremony" of Qingshan Palace in recent years, Tsai Ing-wen participated in the ceremony for the start of the ceremony for many years, and behind him are Huang Chengguo and "Minister of the Interior" Xu Guoyong. The Taiwan "Cultural Association" has also cooperated with Qingshan Palace to hold border-abiding activities in recent years.

Former DPP legislator and founder of the party, Su Huanzhi, disclosed in October that after Huang Chengguo's father passed away, a bunch of high-ranking police officers at the county and municipal levels and authorities actually went to the Huang family to mourn. Even if the father of a "legislator"-level person passed away, these senior police officers could not do this, but Huang Chengguo had such a pomp. He asked, "Who gave Huang Chengguo such great authority? Isn't Tsai Ing-wen's tacit approval?" A few days ago, the president of the Taiwan Police University, Chen Wen, was exposed to have a night meeting with the gang leader Lin Bingwen in a luxury residential guesthouse.

A comment published in the China Times on the 15th stated that the "black gold" that Tsai Ing-wen opposed is color and has ideological . She only opposes "black gold", but condons corruption among her own people and the party. The recent Tainan shooting case was accused of unclear interests of officials and businessmen. Some Taiwanese media said that in recent years, government and business have been involved in police personnel, senior officials seeking honor, and are busy making friends with political and powerful people, forming a symbiotic structure of the "golden power game" from top to bottom, and the black and white boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred. "The DPP has created a destruction of police discipline, its roots have become corrupt, and it has become a waste of time to talk about public security."

United News Network said that even though there have been a series of horrific shootings in Kaohsiung and Tainan, authorities are still busy assisting the election. Regarding the recent explosion of a series of unusual interactions between police officers and underworld gangs and money launderers in the police industry, even pretending to be self-clear. "Perhaps, because the current competition for elections and public security is important, the criminals are even more lawless. The common people who just want to live and work in peace can only seek more blessings."

Taiwan's United Daily News published an editorial saying that Lin Bingwen was recently investigated and found that the fraud group assisted in money laundering through his third-party payment pipeline. In less than three years, the amount of money handling reached NT$2.7 billion. Taiwan's fraud group has gone to the world in recent years, and money launderers play an important role and are indispensable in group criminal structures such as guns and drugs. Recently, the "Taiwan Version of Cambodia Fraud Case" cracked by New Taipei , the horror plots such as abuse, feeding poison, and abandoning corpses of victims are signs of the increasing rampant underground illegal organizations and the biggest irony of Taiwan's "Executive Yuan". The article said that the "group of government and black government" is gradually corroding Taiwan's foundation. There are always politicians behind the gangs, and there are always "legislators" who help lobby, "Black and white are both in love... Can such a government still make people look forward to justice and axioms?"