TAIPEI, Taiwan—A naturalized Taiwanese citizen of Chinese origin has been sentenced to eight years in prison for violating Taiwan’s national security law by establishing organizations in Taiwan under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Zhou Man-zhi, a Chinese national who obtained Taiwanese citizenship in 2004 after marrying a Taiwanese man, was sentenced on Jan. 20 by the Taiwan High Court’s branch in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The sentencing reverses a prior ruling that acquitted Zhou because of insufficient evidence.

According to the ruling, Zhou was a member of the Shaanxi Patriotic Volunteer Association and the Chinese Patriotic Volunteers Association, two China-based civic organizations that the court found to be affiliated with the Chinese regime’s United Front Work Department.

In China, the United Front Work Department reports directly to the Central Committee, which is headed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The department coordinates thousands of groups to carry out foreign political influence operations, suppress dissident voices and activities, gather intelligence, and facilitate the transfer of technology to China. Ultimately, the CCP uses the “united front work” strategy to advance its economic, political, and security interests worldwide.

Acting on instructions from the two Chinese civic organizations, Zhou established two care associations in Taiwan targeting new immigrants: one incorporating “Kaohsiung” in its name, in 2016, and a second using “Taiwan” in its name, in 2019.

Through the two Taiwan-based care associations, Zhou “actively planned and carried out activities with clear ‘united front’ objectives,” the ruling stated.

Her targets included other Chinese spouses, as well as new immigrants and their offspring, according to the ruling.

Zhou’s “united front” activities were carried out in the name of promoting cross-strait economic and cultural exchanges, the court said, and she directly sought guidance and financial support from senior united front officials.

In 2017, Zhou traveled to China seeking a meeting with Huang Lanxiang, then head of the United Front Work Department of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, but her request was denied, according to the ruling.

Zhou made another trip to China in 2018 and met with Cui Guowei, who founded the Shaanxi Patriotic Volunteer Association, and signed a declaration that acknowledged the “CCP’s leadership ability in Taiwan,” the ruling stated.

Explaining the rationale for the sentence, the court said Zhou’s actions, which it characterized as ideological infiltration, were intended to undermine public vigilance toward the CCP and had harmed Taiwan’s national security and social stability.

Zhou was sentenced to eight years in prison for violating Taiwan’s National Security Act.

The Epoch Times could not reach Zhou’s lawyer for comment.

In the United States, the House Select Committee on China has warned about the threats posed by the CCP’s operations under its united front work strategy.

In a 2023 memo, the committee said the Chinese regime views the strategy as a “magic weapon,” one for which the United States has “no direct analogue,” and whose threats are “little understood.”