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Another detained member of the New Party, Lin Ming-cheng, told reporters after his release that he was questioned about the spying case and his relationship with Zhou, but he denied the allegations.

“It is absurd for them to make a link between Zhou and us all because they found a mention of us on Zhou’s computer,” Lin said, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office praised the New Party for upholding the “one China” principle in a short statement released late on Tuesday.

“Recently, the Taiwan authorities have shielded and connived with Taiwan independent splittists, and taken various moves to wantonly crack down on and persecute forces and people who uphold peaceful reunification,” it said.

“We strongly condemn this and are paying close attention to developments.”

The investigation is the second in recent months into a minority party supporting unification with the Chinese mainland, and comes amid heightened tensions between the government of self-ruled Taiwan and Beijing.

Relations across the Taiwan Strait have deteriorated since the election of President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016, whose ruling DPP rejects Chinese claims of sovereignty over the island of 23 million.

While parties which are strongly pro-Beijing have little traction with the electorate, the majority of whom identify as Taiwanese, there are growing fears among Taipei’s elite that China is seeking to undermine their country’s democracy from within.

In September, government agencies launched a probe into the Chinese Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), run by Chang An-lo, a former triad leader known as White Wolf, over concerns that Beijing was funding its activities. Chang has denied the accusations.