Five Taiwanese businesspeople working in China were found guilty of taking money from Chinese authorities to buy votes for a pro-Beijing candidate in Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election. On Jan. 17, the Taipei District Court indicted five businesspeople on charges of using Chinese government money to encourage Taiwan nationals living abroad to return home and vote for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Han Kuo-yu during his presidential bid in January 2020. KMT is the largest opposition party in Taiwan, known for its China-friendly stance. However, despite Beijing’s efforts to meddle in Taiwan’s democratic election, Han lost his bid to unseat President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) by a wide margin. Among those found guilty, Lin Huai, chairman of a Taiwanese business association in Changsha, the capital city of China’s Hunan Province, received a 46-month prison sentence and was deprived of his civic rights for four years for …