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Retired navy officer gets 5-month prison sentence over China links

ROC Central News Agency

07/21/2023 09:15 PM

Taipei, July 21 (CNA) The Kaohsiung District Court on Friday sentenced retired Navy Major General Hsia Fu-hsiang (夏復翔) to five months in prison Friday in connection with a Chinese attempt to cultivate intelligence assets in Taiwan.

The ruling, which is subject to appeal, can be commuted to a per diem fine of NT$1,000 (US$32), the court said in a statement.

The court added that it had acquitted former Legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) on related espionage charges after finding no evidence he had recruited any retired military officers or established a relationship with Chinese intelligence.

Lo and Hsia, who were indicted in March, stood accused of arranging for retired Taiwanese military personnel to go on subsidized sightseeing tours of China at the behest of two front organizations for Chinese state intelligence -- the Alumni Association of the Huangpu Military Academy (AAHMA) and the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification (CCPPNR).

Prosecutors alleged that Hsia, who retired in 2009, met CCPPNR Deputy Secretary-General Hao Yifeng (郝一峰) and AAHMA official Fang Xinsheng (方新生) in 2012 in his capacity as Republic of China (Taiwan) Navy Academy Alumni Society head.

Prosecutors had charged Lo, then the head of Taiyen Biotech Co.'s Xiamen subsidiary, introduced Hsia to Lee Ying (李鷹), a business associate in Guangzhou whose father served in the People's Liberation Army Air Force, who arranged for Hsia to take an all-expenses-paid trip to China.

On Friday, the court ruled that Hsia had arranged for 14 retired naval officers to visit China from 2014 to 2018 at the behest of Hao and Fang.

However, since no evidence showed that any of these retired officers eventually agreed to be recruited by the AAHMA, the court ruled that Hsia's efforts were only "an attempt" to develop a spy ring for China.

Although Lo and Hsia knew Li, prosecutors failed to provide enough evidence to prove that the latter has ties to Chinese intelligence, the court said, adding that arranging for retired Taiwanese officers to visit China did not constitute a crime.

Following Friday's verdict, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office said it would appeal the ruling.

(By Hung Hsueh Kuang, Mathew Mazzetta, Evelyn Kao, Sean Lin and Ko Lin)

Enditem/ASG