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© 2026 DailyDropNo. 3
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, WED., OCT. 7, 2026No. 3 · 6:00 p.m. Taipei6 p.m. Taipei
TAIEX49,806.37▼0.03%10/7USD/TWD31.80▲0.04%10/7S&P 5007,818.93▲0.58%10/6WTI$89.44▲0.01%10/6黃金$4,187.10▲0.73%10/6
National security · JusticePress ✓ 6 outlets · facts drawn from the indictment and court documents; not yet final

Taipei prosecutors indict 4 private investigators over 24-hour watch on Puma Shen's home, issue wanted notices for 2 Hong Kong clients; FBI filing: arrested woman was also told to trace address of anti-Communist Taiwanese elected official

Two China-linked surveillance cases surfaced on the same day: one in Taipei, with Hong Kong clients; one in Los Angeles, where the arrested woman had watched President Lai's eldest son. Both are still in judicial proceedings. The identities of the official and the clients, and the chain of command above them, are the next things to watch.

On the 7th, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office concluded its investigation into the surveillance of Puma Shen (沈伯洋), indicting four private investigators under the Personal Data Protection Act and issuing wanted notices for the two Hong Kong nationals who commissioned the job. According to CNA, PTS, United Daily News and Radio Taiwan International, the commission was placed around September 2024 for a fee of about NT$360,000. The main contractor subcontracted the work. Because Shen has bodyguards and early tailing went badly, the investigators switched to a miniature camera hidden under a scooter seat and filmed the gate of his home around the clock from Oct. 1 to Nov. 8, 2024, sending the footage to the clients over Telegram. Reports say Shen did not file a complaint until 2025; Taipei's Da'an Precinct traced a scooter registered in an elderly person's name, and it took nearly a year to solve the case. Prosecutors judged that the four had cooperated with a hostile foreign force. The DPP said this is not the first case of China's transnational repression targeting a specific politician. Shen is the DPP's candidate for Taipei mayor.

A second thread runs through the United States. An affidavit by an FBI agent, made public by the court, shows that Chang Wan-ying (張婉瑩), arrested at Los Angeles airport on the 4th and accused of surveilling President Lai's eldest son, was also allegedly directed by Chinese officials to trace an address in Irvine, California, linked to an anti-Communist elected official in Taiwan. The affidavit redacts the address and does not explain how the official is connected to it. CNA asked the U.S. Attorney's Office to confirm the official's identity and had no confirmation by press time. That section of the document is the agent's inference and a footnote, not an established fact, and the defendant has not been convicted. In Taiwan the case has become a policy issue: Premier Cho Jung-tai said on the 6th that cross-border repression is now a reality, and the Mainland Affairs Council said it will amend the law and draw up guidelines for the public. Taken together, the two cases share a pattern: the targets are individuals tied to Taiwan's politics or national security, and the method is cheap tailing and logging daily routines.

Three questions remain unanswered. First, whether the two Hong Kong clients have already left Taiwan's jurisdiction. Second, whether current Taiwanese law adequately covers “helping to tail people and collect information on them”; Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said on the 6th that it does not. Third, who the anti-Communist elected official in the U.S. documents is, and whether that will be made public. Until these have clear answers, this page reports only facts cited by two or more outlets.

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By the numbers
4 indicted, 2 wantedProsecutors indicted 4 investigators under the personal data law; the 2 Hong Kong clients are at large (CNA, United Daily News, PTS)
About NT$360,000Fee for the commission, converted to NT dollars; the main contractor subcontracted it (United Daily News, Newslens, Radio Taiwan International)
24 hoursOct. 1 to Nov. 8, 2024: the front gate of the home filmed by a miniature camera under a scooter seat (PTS, CNA)
Politics · PersonnelPress ✓ 6 outlets · allegations not yet investigated to a conclusion

Hsu Chia-ching resigns as head of Overseas Community Affairs Council; Premier Cho “reluctantly accepts”; foreign ministry still verifying

Overseas Community Affairs Council Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) held a press conference on the 7th, at one point choking up, and announced her resignation effective immediately so as to cooperate with administrative and judicial investigations. She said she was resigning to give the investigation room to be objective and independent, and to protect the standing of the minister's office. She continues to deny misusing public funds or benefiting family members. On the 5th, the TPP caucus accused her of letting her son join an overseas trip as a “photographer” and letting her American husband use an official car at an overseas mission; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has asked the missions concerned to establish the facts and has no conclusion yet. A Cabinet spokesperson said Premier Cho Jung-tai has received resignation letters from Hsu and Deputy Minister Li Yen-hui (李姸慧), asked Li to stay and serve as acting minister, and, out of respect for Hsu's wish to protect her reputation, “reluctantly accepted” her resignation. Some media report that the Taipei District Prosecutors Office has opened a case file; we have seen only a single source and are not adopting it for now.

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Word of the day
RecusalGOVERNMENT

The rule that a civil servant must step back from a decision or matter when they or their relatives could benefit from it. The aim is to keep the use of public resources from being skewed by private ties.

Cybersecurity · Personal dataPress ✓ 6 outlets · figures from the company's material information filing

104 Job Bank: 120,000 resumes accessed without authorization; Ministry of Labor opens administrative oversight, violations can bring fines of up to NT$2 million

On the afternoon of the 6th, 104 Information Technology (104資訊科技) issued a material information announcement saying it had detected abnormal access in the system behind its app, and that about 120,000 job seekers' resumes had been accessed without authorization. The company has blocked the abnormal access, hired a third-party cybersecurity firm for forensics, reported the incident to the Taipei City Field Office of the Investigation Bureau, and will notify possibly affected users individually by email. On the 7th the Ministry of Labor said that under the Personal Data Protection Act and the personal data security measures for employment agencies, the company must notify the New Taipei City Labor Affairs Bureau within 72 hours with a copy to the ministry; the notification has been received. New Taipei City government will conduct an administrative inspection, and the Workforce Development Agency is tracking progress. Deficiencies can draw fines of NT$20,000 to NT$2 million and an order to correct by a deadline; if not corrected, fines of NT$150,000 to NT$15 million can be imposed repeatedly.

Which fields were affected, and whether the leaked data has been resold, are both still being assessed, the company says. For job seekers, a resume often contains name, phone number, address and work history — the combination fraud rings like best. Users who receive a notice are advised to stay alert to unfamiliar job offers and to messages asking for verification codes, and to confirm through the channels listed on the official 104 website.

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Labor · IndustryPress ✓ 5 outlets · outlets disagree on the share of votes in favor

Micron Taoyuan union wins right to strike, may stage surprise walkout; Ministry of Labor urges management to offer a concrete plan

The Micron Taoyuan plant union finished counting its strike vote on the evening of the 6th and announced on the 7th that it has won the legal right to strike and to set up a picket line. Outlets differ on the share voting yes: one report says about 88.3%, another nearly 99%, possibly because of different bases for the count; we cannot confirm. The union says it is unhappy with the size of the profit-sharing bonus and that earlier mediation failed, and it demands that the company distribute results fairly. No strike date has been set; the union has not ruled out notifying members by text message and striking without warning, and plans to recommend that employees take leave on the 19th to rally on Ketagalan Boulevard. The Ministry of Labor respects the vote, urged management to table a concrete, workable plan and negotiate with the union, and will work with Taoyuan City government and the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau to help the two sides communicate. Micron said it respects employees' legal rights, will hold mediation with the Taichung union later this month, and will keep talking with the Taoyuan union to seek a solution acceptable to all sides.

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Finance · MarketsSource ✓ TWSE statistics · Press ✓ 4 outlets

Taiwan stocks stall 33 points short of 50,000 intraday, close at 49,806; foreign investors turn to selling, big institutional investors net sellers for a second day

The TAIEX opened higher on the 7th, then turned negative. Its intraday high of 49,966.89 left it only about 33 points short of 50,000, a second straight session in which the bid for that level failed. It closed down 16.18 points at 49,806.37. CNA reported turnover of about NT$926 billion (another count puts it at about NT$974.4 billion; the two differ). TSMC closed flat at NT$2,585. The three major institutional investors together net sold NT$21.257 billion: foreign and Chinese investors net sold NT$13.044 billion, turning to selling after four straight sessions of buying; investment trusts net sold about NT$417 million; dealers net sold NT$7.796 billion. High-priced AI-theme stocks weakened; King Slide (川湖) gapped down to the daily limit, and ASPEED (信驊) also dropped sharply at one point. Analysts note that 50,000 is a psychological barrier, and when shrinking volume and foreign selling coincide, the index tends to churn near the highs.

The Taiwan dollar closed at 31.795, down 1.4 cents, ending a five-day winning streak; FX dealers say the rate has mostly moved sideways between 31.7 and 31.8 since October. In the U.S., the Federal Reserve will release the September meeting minutes on Wednesday afternoon, Eastern time. With Treasury yields staying high, the market wants to know whether officials hint at another rate hike. The content will not be known until the early hours of the 8th, Taiwan time, so this page makes no call for now.

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In brief
  • Legislative Yuan committee-convener elections: KMT takes 7 seats, TPP 1; TPP's Chen Chao-tzu (陳昭姿) to convene the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes CommitteePTS
  • Cabinet approves amendments to the small, medium and micro enterprise statute, expected to drive more than NT$50 billion in investmentCNA
  • Steel girders joined on the permanent Mataian Creek bridge; Ministry of Transportation says it will open to traffic ahead of schedule, in mid-2027CNA
  • National Day light show lights up the Presidential Office; President Lai: all of us are mountain-buildersCNA
  • Kumamoto governor and assembly speaker visit Taiwan together, thanking it for help after the earthquakePTS
  • Intrusion into high-speed rail radio system caused several trains to brake suddenly; prosecutors seek 2 years for the main suspect, a university studentUnited Daily News
  • Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi meets Tsai Ing-wen: U.S. Congress's commitment to Taiwan is unwavering; Tsai also speaks at a Stanford conference dinnerCNA
  • Teachers' groups urge more days of menstrual leave; labor groups urge lowering the threshold for forming unionsPTS
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Unverified — what we could not confirm

“Hsu Chia-ching has been named a corruption defendant, and prosecutors have directed the Agency Against Corruption to investigate.” Quoted by a single outlet only; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still verifying, and we could not find a second independent source. Wait for a formal statement from prosecutors.
“Micron strikes tomorrow.” The union said only that it has won the right to strike, may notify members by text message and strike without warning, and has not set a date; there is also a plan to rally on Ketagalan Boulevard on the 19th.
“104's 120,000 resumes have been resold and have surfaced on the dark web.” The company says only that they were accessed without authorization; the scope and destination of the leak are still being assessed. No reliable source confirms any resale.
Glossary · dotted words — economics, law, security and science terms explained in the context of the story. The list grows every day.
INSIDETaipei prosecutors indict 4 private investigators over 24-hour watch on Puma Shen's home, issue wanted notices for 2 Hong Kong clients; FBI filing: arrested woman was also told to trace address of anti-Communist Taiwanese elected officialNational security · JusticeHsu Chia-ching resigns as head of Overseas Community Affairs Council; Premier Cho “reluctantly accepts”; foreign ministry still verifyingPolitics · Personnel104 Job Bank: 120,000 resumes accessed without authorization; Ministry of Labor opens administrative oversight, violations can bring fines of up to NT$2 millionCybersecurity · Personal dataMicron Taoyuan union wins right to strike, may stage surprise walkout; Ministry of Labor urges management to offer a concrete planLabor · IndustryTaiwan stocks stall 33 points short of 50,000 intraday, close at 49,806; foreign investors turn to selling, big institutional investors net sellers for a second dayFinance · Markets