Taipei prosecutors yesterday indicted five Taiwanese, including four retired military officers, and a retired Chinese army officer on charges of espionage and leaking state secrets, in a case authorities said involved the largest Chinese spy ring that had operated in Taiwan for some years.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said the spy ring, allegedly headed by former People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer Zhen Xiaojiang (鎮小江), had passed classified military information about Taiwan’s radar stations, advanced aircraft and other weapon systems to China.
“Zhen was under instruction to recruit both retired and active service Taiwanese military officers to develop a network for espionage against Taiwan, which has done severe damage to our national security,” the office said in a statement.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Previous reports have said that Zhen, who reportedly joined China’s intelligence agency after retiring from the PLA, obtained Hong Kong residency in 2005, and had since entered Taiwan numerous times on business and tourist visas.
The Taiwanese defendants are former army major-general Hsu Nai-chuan (許乃權), air force colonel Chou Chih-li (周自立), air force pilot Sung Chia-lu (宋嘉祿), air force official Yang Jung-hua (楊榮華), and Lee Huan-yu (李寰宇), a Greater Kaohsiung nightclub operator.
According to prosecutors, through the retirees he recruited, Zhen was able to make contact with active duty officers who had access to classified materials, which he handed over to a senior Chinese military intelligence official known by the pseudonym of Mao Shangyu (毛尚云).
Investigators said the spy ring passed on classified information on the Mirage 2000 aircraft, the ultra-high-frequency radar installation on Leshan (樂山) in Hsinchu County, and more sophisticated military weaponry and technology.
Prosecutors allege that Zhen paid his informants about NT$300,000 and provided free trips to Southeast Asia in return for the classified military material, and arranged for some of them to meet Chinese intelligence officers while abroad.
Prosecutors said investigators are still following up the leads, and the probe could be expanded and more charges filed.
Hsu served as a commander of Kinmen’s defense command, a commander at the Republic of China Military Academy in Greater Kaohsiung and was once in charge of defense on Matsu.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats