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Justice minister rules out spy deal involving ex-Taiwanese officer

ROC Central News Agency

2013/12/16 19:58:41

Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) Taiwan will not accept any exchange of spies with China that would free a high-ranking Taiwanese officer convicted of spying for Beijing, Minister of Justice Lo Ying-hsueh vowed Monday, after news of negotiations on a possible deal surfaced.

The Taipei-based China Times reported Monday that intelligence officials from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait held secret talks in a third country on an exchange of seized spies.

But the talks broke down because China proposed that Taiwan release Lo Hsien-che, a former Army major general who was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted on espionage charges, according to the newspaper report.

Lo was one of the highest-ranking Taiwanese military officers convicted of spying for China in more than two decades.

Fielding questions at a Legislative Yuan committee hearing, Minister Lo said the government has no intention of allowing Lo Hsien-che to be freed as part of any spy exchange.

Deputy Defense Minister Yen Teh-fa said at the hearing that the Ministry of National Defense did not have any additional information on the reported talks, explaining that issues related to prisoner or spy exchanges have traditionally been dealt with by national security units.

Military sources said Lo Hsien-che fell into a sex trap set by Chinese agents in 2004 while posted in Thailand from 2002 to 2005.

He delivered classified data to Chinese agents on five occasions in exchange for bribes, and he has been behind bars since January 2011.

The China Times report quoted unidentified national security sources as saying that security officials from Taiwan and China met in a Southeast Asian country to discuss the possibility of spy exchanges, with the National Security Council playing a guiding role for Taiwan.

Though the talks broke down due to China's request for Lo's release, the sources said Taiwan's government is still working through formal and informal channels to secure the return of Taiwanese intelligence officers being held in China.

National security authorities most want to obtain the release of two National Security Bureau agents identified only by their family names of Chu and Hsu, the report said.

The duo were illegally arrested by Chinese agents in an area on the border between Vietnam and China on May 29, 2006, according to the report.

Both were sentenced to life imprisonment. They were first jailed in Guangxi, but are now under house arrest in an undisclosed location.

The report also said China was interested in negotiating the release of three of its agents held in Taiwan, all of whom are from Hong Kong.

The whereabouts of only one of them, identified as Li Zhihao, is known. He was transferred to Taipei Prison along with Lo Hsien-che in August when the revised Code of Court-Martial Procedures took effect.

Where the other two are being held has not been divulged.

(By Wen Kui-hsiang and Sofia Wu)
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