A Chinese espionage investigation has reached deep into the office of independent Taiwanese lawmaker Kao Chin Su-mei, with three of her closest aides now implicated — bad news for her politically, whatever she knew.

• Her longtime financial manager, Chang Chun-chieh, skipped bail and fled on Sept. 6, and is now wanted and missing.
• Before fleeing he handed a USB drive to another of her assistants; prosecutors found it hidden in her legislative office and seized it in a raid.
• Two more staffers — her current office director and a publicly funded assistant — were detained and barred from visitors, suspected of building and running an organization for Beijing, a crime carrying at least five years in prison.
• Investigators say Chang took large payments from Hong Kong through relatives' accounts, totaling at least NT$100 million, on top of earlier charges of falsely claiming staff pay and over NT$9 million in government and state-company subsidies.
• Aides and voters were allegedly flown to China for cheap or free trips dressed up as cultural exchange and study programs.

Outlook: Pressure is building on Kao Chin herself, with lawyers claiming security agencies had been wiretapping her aide for 14 years — making the claim that she knew nothing increasingly hard to sell.