Taiwan prosecutors say a network taking money from China operated inside a sitting lawmaker's office for more than a decade — a serious blow to trust in Taipei's political establishment.

• Two aides to independent legislator Kao Chin Su-mei were detained and cut off from outside contact over suspected Chinese funding of a covert organization in Taiwan.
• The alleged ringleader is Chang Chun-chieh, Kao's longtime office chief, who cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and fled while out on bail.
• Investigators have tracked the case on national-security grounds for over ten years and are now tracing where the Chinese money came from and who it reached.
• Chang's China contacts run through Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office and unification groups, including a large disaster-relief payment routed through an Indigenous cultural association after the 2009 typhoon.
• The same aides were already charged in a separate scheme to claim public salaries for staff who did not work.

Outlook: Prosecutors will keep following the money trail, and the key open question is whether Kao herself knew or took part.