Counterintelligence agents in Taiwan thwarted a high-profile defection from the island's armed forces after Chinese spies enticed a Taiwanese army pilot to hand over a U.S.-made CH-47 Chinook helicopter in exchange for $15 million, a local magazine reported on Monday.
The lieutenant colonel surnamed Hsieh was offered money, and safe passage for him and his family in the event of a conflict with China, if he could land the helicopter on the deck of a Chinese navy aircraft carrier, which would be passing the island's coastline, according to Chinese-language outlet CTWant.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report's details but in a statement later on Monday, said an investigation, following an "internal tip-off," led to the officer's arrest and prosecution in Kaohsiung, a southern port city, at an undisclosed date this year.
"Measures have been taken to minimize damage from the case," the ministry said. "The Chinese Communist Party's espionage is increasingly urgent and the means and methods of its infiltration more diverse."
Hsieh was flown to Bangkok in June by an intermediary—a retired Taiwanese military officer—and met self-identified Chinese operatives working for the People's Liberation Army, CTWang said.
The Taiwanese pilot was first offered a modest cash incentive and promised Thai visas for his entire family so they could avoid any future fighting across the Taiwan Strait. The conditions for Hsieh's defection, the report said, would have required him to fly the army's Chinook into the strait, near the center line, and land it on the PLA Navy carrier in international waters.
He initially declined but later changed his mind after the alleged Chinese spies offered to pay him half the cost of the helicopter—$15 million—and agreed to sail the warship closer to Taiwan's coastline, within 24 nautical miles.
The U.S. Navy has landed a Chinook on an aircraft carrier in the past, but the same has not been recorded for the Chinese Navy using a similarly sized airframe. Defense analysts in Taipei this week challenged some of the report's details, including the low probability that a Chinese carrier could sail so close to the island without interdiction.
"I feel pained, too, to have discovered a case like this, and those allegedly involved should be dealt with according to the law," Chiu Kuo-cheng, Taiwan's defense chief, told lawmakers in Taipei's parliament on Monday.
Discussing a separate espionage case—also involving Beijing's intelligence efforts targeting Taiwan—Chiu said those found guilty of treason "should be shot," remarks that he later said reflected his serious view of the matter.
Taiwan's legislators have called for the strongest possible punishment for Hsieh and others who helped broker the deal. In other espionage cases, prosecutors seeking harsher sentences for suspects have argued that only heavy penalties will deter future similar incidents.
A Taiwanese court in August said it was investigating a lieutenant colonel surnamed Hsieh, a member of a special army aviation unit, as well as a businessman, for allegedly leaking defense secrets to Chinese spies. It was unclear whether the two cases were linked.
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Aadil Brar is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian ... Read more
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