DATE=8/30/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA - TAIWAN SPY (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253248
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: China has sentenced an official in its southern
island province of Hainan to life in prison for spying for
Taiwan. VOA correspondent Roger Wilkison reports one of
the province's top authorities has been fired and expelled
from the Communist Party for negligence in the case.
TEXT: An appeals court in Hainan Monday confirmed the life
sentence meted out to Xi Shiguo, whom it identified as an
assistant researcher in the provincial government. A court
official in Haikou, the provincial capital, says Mr. Xi's
co-defendant -a Taiwanese he identified as Xiong Tianjun
(Hsiung Tien-chun)- also received a heavy sentence, but he
would not say what it was.
The two men were originally convicted in June. At the
time, the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily
identified Mr. Xiong as an employee of Taiwanese military
intelligence. It said Mr. Xiong recruited Mr. Xi and paid
him a total of 93-hundred dollars between July 1996 and
March 1997, when Mr. Xi was arrested.
In announcing the appeals court verdict Monday, China's
official Xinhua news agency said Mr. Xi was guilty of
spying for what it called an overseas intelligence agency,
but did not say for which country. It also did not mention
Mr. Xiong.
When the case was first disclosed two months ago, the
People's Daily said Mr. Xi allowed Mr. Xiong to photograph
or photocopy nearly 100 classified documents on political,
economic and national security matters.
The episode is the latest in a 50-year-old espionage war
between China and Taiwan. It comes as the two rivals are
locked in a new confrontation following Taiwan's insistence
that it be treated as an equal in its dealings with China.
Beijing regards the island as a wayward province and its
government as illegitimate.
The Xinhua report says protection of classified documents
in the Hainan government was chaotic. It says Lin Kechang
-the deputy secretary-general of the provincial government-
has been held responsible for the lax security. Mr. Lin
was removed from his post and expelled from the Communist
Party. Seven other provincial officials have also been
disciplined for negligence in the case. (Signed)
NEB/RW/FC/kl
30-Aug-1999 07:32 AM EDT (30-Aug-1999 1132 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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