Taipei, Taiwan – For a man associated with organised crime, election interference, and Chinese influence operations, Chang An-lo is surprisingly accessible. Widely known as the “White Wolf,” Chang is the founder of the Chinese Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), which advocates for Taiwan’s “reunification” with China. His political platform remains a fringe position in Taiwan, despite the island’s deep cultural and historical ties with the mainland.
Taiwan, a democracy of some 23 million people, has been administered separately from the Chinese mainland for more than a century. It was first a Japanese colony and then became the “Republic of China,” whose government fled to the island in the 1940s at the end of the Chinese Civil War. Opinion polls consistently suggest that most Taiwanese want to maintain the island’s status as a de facto independent state, even as the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing claims the territory as a province that must be reunited with the mainland, using force if necessary.
Chang accuses Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te of trying to bait Beijing into a conflict by pushing for Taiwanese independence. He hopes to persuade Taiwanese that they do not need to sacrifice themselves as cannon fodder in the event of an “armed unification” with China. “We refuse to be cannon fodder,” Chang told Al Jazeera in an interview at his party’s head office. “If you don’t pursue Taiwan independence, there won’t be a war. But if you push for independence, sell Taiwan out, and provoke a conflict, you are the ones responsible.”
Chang claims to have negotiated with China’s authorities about designating certain Daoist temples in Taiwan as shelters for civilians during a conflict. He often wears a vest emblazoned with a call for Taiwan’s armed forces to “rise up on the front line.” To his critics, Chang’s views are not just offensive, but potentially treasonous. “The meaning of ‘rise up at the front line, don’t be cannon fodder’ isn’t only saying don’t resist the Chinese,” Lai Chung-Chiang, a Taiwanese lawyer and human rights activist, told Al Jazeera. “It’s saying don’t be loyal to Taiwan’s democratically elected government.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior has branded the CUPP a threat to the “existence of the Republic of China and the constitutional order of freedom and democracy.” Last week, the ministry submitted a request to the Taiwan Constitutional Court formally seeking the party’s dissolution. The government’s case rests on allegations that the party accepted instructions from Beijing to develop grassroots influence operations, recruited current and former military officers to spy for China, and used Chinese funding to interfere in elections.
Since the CUPP’s founding in the mid-2000s, at least 11 party members have been investigated or prosecuted for violating national security, anti-infiltration, or election laws, according to Interior Ministry data. Furthermore, the ministry reports that dozens of party members have committed other non-national security-related crimes over the past 20 years, including offences against the Organised Crime Prevention Act. When asked about these criticisms, Chang claimed the crime rate among his members is lower than for Taiwanese society as a whole, insisting that anyone engaging in criminal activity would be expelled from the party.
Chang sidestepped a question about whether he works for China’s United Front Work Department, which oversees China’s political influence operations abroad. “For the peace and happiness of the people on both sides of the Strait, I am fully on board with the united front,” he said. Additionally, Chang accused the ruling Democratic Progressive Party of corruption and shared a dossier of alleged cases involving its officials, attempting to deflect the government’s scrutiny of his own organization.
Before his interview at the CUPP’s office on Monday, Chang met the distressed parents of a young woman feared to be trapped at a scam centre near the Golden Triangle, the region where the borders of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand meet. Scrolling through a phone full of photo IDs, Chang said he has helped broker the return of dozens of Taiwanese who had been trafficked to Southeast Asia in similar circumstances, positioning himself as a provider of public services that the state fails to deliver.
The CUPP has no representatives in the national legislature, with its only elected members being two neighbourhood wardens. While Chang does not hold elected office, he maintains that his efforts are essential for the future of the nation. He argues that China’s political operations in Taiwan rely on multiple local nodes, and those involved can move into associations, civic groups, or other organisations to exert influence.
Chang pointed to Hong Kong, where Beijing has tightened its control since mass pro-democracy protests in 2019, as a potential framework for Taiwan’s “peaceful” reunification. He noted that as early as 1978, the mainland proposed favourable conditions for unification, suggesting that the national anthem, flag, and name could be negotiated. Whether known as the Republic of China or the People’s Republic of China, Chang insists that Taiwan and China are one and the same. “Both sides represent China, and we are all Chinese,” he concluded.
The legal challenge against the CUPP represents a significant escalation in Taipei’s efforts to curb Beijing’s influence. By targeting the party’s legal status, the government is testing the limits of constitutional protections for political speech and association when those freedoms are allegedly used to undermine the state. The Constitutional Court’s ruling will likely set a major precedent for how Taiwan handles political entities that openly advocate for the end of its current democratic system.
As the legal battle unfolds, the “White Wolf” remains defiant. He continues to organize rallies and maintain his network, framing the government’s actions as a desperate attempt to silence opposition. For the Taiwanese public, the case highlights the ongoing tension between maintaining democratic freedoms and protecting the island from external subversion in an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment.
Chang said he also helps residents renegotiate repayments for people indebted to loan sharks, among other forms of assistance.
Chang, who was born in China, acknowledges that he was a senior member of the Bamboo Union in his youth, but told Al Jazeera that he left in 1968.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Chang spent 10 years in a United States federal prison on drug trafficking charges.
Chang returned to Taiwan in 2013, when he was arrested at the airport on allegations of violating the Organised Crime Prevention Act.
Prosecutors later dropped all charges against him.
“Advocating for reunification and opposing secessionist attempts are justified and legitimate, as they conform to the overall interests of the Chinese nation and the prevailing trend of history,” Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing, said during a media briefing last week.
The Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Pu-chao Hung, a Taiwanese political scientist, said the dissolution of the CUPP would be a largely symbolic win for Taipei.
China used a similar playbook in Hong Kong in the run-up to the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, courting political elites and civic organisations to shore up support for Beijing.
“I believe the best way forward is to sit down and talk.
Source: Aljazeera
