from: http://www.dazereader.com/chumeifeng.htm
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Chu Mei-feng Taiwan sex video scandal explained
The name "Chu Mei-Feng" has swamped search engines in recent weeks, in a variety of spellings and often in conjunction with the words "sex," "video," "VCD" and "download." Like most Americans, we had no idea who Chu Mei-Feng was or why Internet users would be frantically searching for her sex video. Over the last week, some news outlets have noted Chu Mei-Feng's search engine notoriety and provided a capsule version of the Taiwan sex scandal that made her famous. For those who love a good sex scandal, Daze Reader did some digging (mostly in the English-language Taipei Times) to compile this more detailed account.
Who is Chu Mei-Feng?
Chu Mei-Feng is a Taiwanese politician with the New Party. She served as a Taipei city councilor, then later became cultural affairs director of Hsinchu. According to the Taipei Times, "Chu, born in 1966, was once a shining star of the New Party who first rose to prominence in 1997 after becoming the first to denounce Sung Chi-li, a cult leader who claimed to have supernatural powers. She later regained the media spotlight by having a love affair with the sitting mayor of Hsinchu City Tsai Jen-chien, though she ended the relationship with Tsai last year." Before entering politics, Chu worked as a TV journalist.
Tabloid Releases The Video
In the fall of 2001, there were rumors in Taiwan political circles that a video showing Chu Mei-Feng having sex in her apartment was being shopped around to tabloids, magazines and VCD distributors in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Most rejected the opportunity to distribute the video, but eventually some took the bait. In its issue released Monday, December 17, 2001, Scoop Weekly ran a lengthy expose of Chu Mei-Feng's promiscuous sex life. That issue of the magazine came packaged with the hidden camera sex video in VCD format. Copies of the 40-minute video also started showing up on the Internet and local street markets in the days before Scoop hit the newsstands.
Chu at first denied being the woman on the video, but weeks later admitted it was probably her. The man in the video was eventually identified as Tseng Chung-ming, a married businessman with whom Chu Mei-Feng had an affair. The video was shot with a pinhole surveillance camera hidden in Chu's apartment (more on that hidden camera below).
In the aftermath of the VCD scandal, another Taiwanese tabloid, Next Weekly, acquired and excerpted Chu's diary, in which she allegedly discussed being showered with money and gifts by "sugar daddies."
Government Bans The VCDs
Copies of Scoop Weekly sold wildly the first day, though some retailers (including 7-11) refused to sell the issue. By Monday night, the Taiwanese Government Information Office (GIO) began seizing copies of the VCD on the grounds that they violated pornography and privacy laws. At first, officials simply removed the VCDs from unsold copies of Scoop Weekly (the magazine and disk came sealed in plastic, just like AOL CDs included with magazines), but in some cases they seized entire bundles of magazines. On Wednesday, GIO official seized Scoop Weekly's printing plates for the controversial issue to prevent the magazine from printing more copies. Scoop Weekly editors protested the seizures, and Taiwanese media debated the free speech vs. privacy implications.
Thousands of VCDs were distributed with Scoop before the crackdown began. Bootleggers quickly began copying and selling the VCDs or posting the video on websites. In late December, Taipei prosecutors questioned 20 people, mostly college students, about distributing Chu Mei-feng sex video bootlegs.
Spycams Placed by Spiritual Advisor
Investigators found ten hidden cameras and audio-recording devices installed in Chu Mei-Feng's apartment, former office and car. The widely distributed sex video was apparently shot from a hidden camera placed in Chu's TV cabinet facing her bed. So who was spying on Chu Mei-Feng, and why?
The investigation quickly focused on Kuo Yu-ling, Chu's former "spiritual growth instructor" from a religious-healing center called Avatar (referred to in some accounts as a "Buddhist sect"). Chu and Kuo were apparently close friends at one point but had fallen out months before the VCD release. Police retrieved a notebook in which Kuo kept coded notes about the surveillance. Several witnesses reported seeing Kuo purchasing video and audio surveillance devices and soliciting a detective agency to install the devices in Chu's home, office and car. Kuo admitted having the pinhole cameras installed in Chu's home, but initially insisted she did so at Chu's request. Several VCD companies confirmed that Kuo contacted them and tried to sell them the sex footage from Chu's bedroom.
Kuo eventually confessed to placing the assorted surveillance devices and creating the hidden camera videotapes. She then insisted that she had been acting on someone else's orders, but wouldn't reveal who else was involved. But police and journalists had a prime suspect: Tsai Jen-chien, former mayor of Hsinchu and Chu Mei-Feng's ex-lover. Kuo admitted that Tsai accompanied her to the private detective agency where she purchased video surveillance equipment, and several witnesses saw them there together.
Vengeful Ex-Boyfriend Behind the Spying?
Prosecutors have interviewed Tsai on at least two occasions and apparently consider him a suspect. At his second interview, prosecutors asked Tsai's lawyer not to attend; under Taiwanese law, prosecutors may only ask lawyers not to attend interviews of suspects or defendants. Tsai insists he did nothing wrong and that "Most of the rumors about me in the newspapers are untrue. . . . I feel so sorry for Chu because, after all, she used to be the woman I loved very much. I don't want to see her get hurt."
A press account of Tsai and Chu's relationship suggested a motive for the spying. Tsai Jen-chien reportedly gave Chu Mei-Feng more than NT$20 million (about US$500,000) in cash and gifts, including buying her a home in Hsinchu, before they broke up in February, 2001. Tsai had tried to take back the gifts after the couple broke up, but Chu refused. In May, Tsai asked Kuo to hire detectives to follow Chu, and the surveillance began to expand after Tsai discovered that Chu had been meeting with other men. This account speculated that Tsai probably wasn't involved in selling the sex-video footage to illegal video vendors. Rather, the surveillance plan likely spun out of control after Kuo sold the video to vendors on her own.
Some accounts also suggest that Tsai and Kuo became romantically involved after Tsai and Chu broke up.
More Tapes?
Police have been searching for the master tape of the Scoop Weekly VCD, so far unsuccessfully. They also believe there may be multiple versions of that tape in distribution. Based on material in Kuo's notebook, investigators believe she may have more tapes of Chu Mei-Feng's sex life hidden somewhere. According to a source from the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office, Kuo had taped Chu having sex with at least ten different men.
Some local media reported that Kuo tried to peddle a second video that depicts a sexual encounter between Chu and a lawmaker in southern Taiwan, and that the lawmaker paid NT$6 million to keep the video under wraps. Prosecutors would not comment on that rumor. Independent lawmaker Tsai Hao came forward to deny speculation that he appeared on the rumored second sex VCD with Chu. "Believe me, I don't even know where her Tamsui apartment is."
Miscellaneous
Chu filed lawsuits against Scoop Weekly and Chung-ti Technology, the company that manufactured the VCD with labels saying it featured Chu. In late January, however, Chu twice failed to appear for her scheduled testimony in the suit, claiming she was too ill.
In mid-January, Taipei City Police arrested Kao Chun-chun, the 19-year-old daughter of Kuo Yu-ling. They believe that Kao may have helped her mother create and sell the hidden camera videos from Chu Mei-feng's apartment.
The Taipei Times reports: "Meanwhile, a number of Internet surfers have criticized Chu, saying the former TV journalist is being hypocritical about the secret-taping incident. In 1992, Chu, a reporter at Taiwan Television Enterprise, was forced to resign after using a hidden camera to compile a report on a local lesbian bar."
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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
Some people's minds are like cement: all mixed up and permanently set...