A Taiwanese court has sentenced a retired air force colonel surnamed Liu to 20 years in prison on charges of spying for China. Taiwan has busted an espionage network involving army officers recruited by Liu, who was passing information about the Taiwanese military to China.
The Taiwan High Prosecutors Office's Kaohsiung branch in January had indicted Liu, as well as six active-duty Taiwanese military officers he had been recruiting for at least eight years, on charges of violating the Classified National Security Information Protection Act for providing confidential national security information to Beijing, according to Focus Taiwan. Liu was sentenced at the Kaohsiung City High Court.
Taiwan is a persistent target of China's espionage activity. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, although Beijing has never governed the self-administered island in their seven decades in power.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has asserted Beijing seeks to reunify Taiwan with the mainland through peaceful means, but he hasn't renounced the option of using military force to capture Taiwan.
Out of the six officers Liu recruited, five were given jail terms between six months and 20 years and six months, while one officer was acquitted, the court ruled, still according to Focus Taiwan.
Liu moved to China in 2013 after retiring from Taiwan's military, where he was recruited by Chinese intelligence services to recruit active-duty officers in the Taiwanese military, the news agency reported.
Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said Thursday that it's "better to prevent than punish later" while commenting on the espionage charges against Liu. Chiu added that the verdict had a deterrent effect.
The prosecutors have said Liu was paid money to share "military intelligence including details on the functions of military airplanes and warships" with China. Liu received over $514,000 over eight years for supplying the information to China.
On Tuesday, a former civil servant employed by Taiwan's Ministry of Culture named Chen Temen Poyen was indicted for supplying information about Tibetans in Taiwan to China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), prosecutors said.
Chen was recruited by a Taiwanese businessman, Fan Hsiang, who had business interests in China's Hainan province, according to prosecutors. They said Fan and his wife, Jan Ju, were recruited by an MSS official to spy on Tibetans living in Taiwan in return for funds and travel to the Chinese province of Hainan.
In August, Taiwanese media reported a separate alleged espionage case involving an army lieutenant colonel who was suspected of working for China.
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About the writer
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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