Taiwan's New Taipei District Court has handed down verdicts in the fourth wave of defendants in the celebrity "draft evasion" case, with nine entertainers receiving suspended sentences of three to four years and being ordered to pay fines totaling NT$5.8 million to the public treasury, according to reports from Taiwanese media including EBC News on October 20.
The nine entertainers admitted to evading military service through false medical certificates and other means. Taking into account that the defendants turned themselves in and pleaded guilty, the judge granted all of them suspended sentences during the October 20 ruling. The conditions include paying between NT$300,000 and NT$1.3 million to the public treasury, as well as performing 60 to 150 hours of community service.
Taiwan's Central News Agency reported that New Taipei prosecutors and police began investigating entertainer Wang Dalu's draft evasion case in February of last year, which gradually uncovered multiple entertainers involved in the scheme. In April of this year, a fourth wave of 15 individuals was indicted, including nine entertainers and five civilian men.
According to EBC News, the entertainers found to have evaded military service in the October 20 ruling include Tang Yuzhe (real name Ruan Tingjun), Liao Renshuai, Tang Zhengang, A Da (real name Chang Jingxiang), Qiu Haoqi (real name Qiu Xiaozun), Li Weifeng, Zou Hansheng (real name Zou Zonghan), Yang Zifeng (real name Yang Jinghan), and Li Yifu. The nine individuals paid a combined total of NT$5.8 million to the public treasury, with Liao Renshuai paying the highest amount at NT$1.3 million, while Tang Yuzhe and Yang Zifeng paid the lowest at NT$300,000 each.
Prosecutors indicted these nine entertainers along with five other individuals, who between 2009 and 2022 allegedly paid to receive guidance from Chen Zhiming, the leader of a "draft evasion syndicate," who helped them plan hospital visits where they would hold their breath to artificially raise blood pressure readings, or had Chen Zhiming undergo 24-hour blood pressure monitoring on behalf of the draft-eligible men, in exchange for hospital-issued diagnoses of moderate to severe hypertension, thereby avoiding military service.
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