Five indicted in China espionage cases
ROC Central News Agency
08/08/2023 02:02 PM
Taipei, Aug. 8 (CNA) The Tainan branch of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office has indicted five people in two separate cases for allegedly spying for China, including one in which secrets related to Taiwan's Han Kuang exercises allegedly changed hands.
In a statement released Monday, Tainan prosecutors said one of the cases involved a Taiwanese businessman who conspired with his son to get two Air Force officers to help them spy for China.
The father, surnamed Huang (黃), and his son were indicted for violating the National Security Act, the Classified National Security Information Protection Act, and the Anti-Corruption Act.
The two military officers, a technical sergeant surnamed Yeh (葉) and a first lieutenant surnamed Su (蘇), were indicted for violating the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces, the Anti-Corruption Act, and other laws, the office said in the statement.
In the indictment, Yeh and Su are accused of leaking eight classified documents regarding Taiwan's Han Kuang drills and other military secrets to China, either by carrying them to China or by sending pictures via cell phone.
Yeh and Su were paid NT$210,000 (US$6,610) and NT$100,000, respectively, while Huang earned NT$456,000 and his son made NT$1.26 million, the indictment alleges.
According to prosecutors, Huang was recruited by Chinese intelligence officers, whose real names remained unknown, when he ran a business in the city of Xiamen in Fujian Province in 2015.
He then worked with his son for China after returning to Taiwan and lured Yeh and Su to join in their scheme with a promise of lucrative gains in exchange for confidential information, prosecutors alleged.
In addition to compiling information on soldiers' identities, Yeh and Su were asked to sign a paper to promise their allegiance to Beijing before they were arranged to meet with a Chinese intelligence official abroad, prosecutors said.
In a separate espionage case related to China, the same Tainan prosecutors office formally charged a former soldier surnamed Tai (戴), who lived in Zhuhai after retiring, of being recruited by China's intelligence officers to turn Taiwanese soldiers into spies for Beijing.
Tai started meeting with two officers he knew surnamed Yang (楊) and Tsai (蔡) in July and August 2021 in an attempt to get them to help gather classified information in exchange for a payment of at least NT$200,000.
Neither Yang nor Tsai agreed to the deal, however, according to Tainan prosecutors, and the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau launched an investigation after being notified of the case.
Tai was indicted on several charges, including for violating the National Security Act, the Classified National Security Information Protection Act, and the Anti-Corruption Act, Tainan prosecutors said.
(By Yang Ssu-jui and Chao Yen-hsiang)
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