The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday confirmed that four active duty personnel and two retired officers are under investigation in connection with a case involving allegations that New Party spokesman Wang Ping-chung (王炳忠) tried to develop media and espionage networks with financial backing from the Chinese government.
“There are four people on active duty and two retired officers who have been summoned for the investigation and were questioned as witnesses. As of now, there is no indication of their involvement in the case,” spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said in response to questions during a regular news conference at the ministry.
From his understanding, the four men on active duty had “liked” posts by Wang on Facebook and other social media platforms, he said.
Photo: CNA
Since the case is under judicial investigation, Chen said he could not divulge the ranks of those who were questioned, and he also declined to reveal their assigned units.
All military personnel are schooled on safeguarding national security, espionage activities by China and how Chinese spies conduct their work, he said.
“Additional courses are also given to officers who are nearing retirement,” Chen said. “We provide examples from previous spy cases to show how Chinese operatives enticed former officers, including offering money, beautiful women for sex, business opportunities, helping to alleviate financial problems and even blackmail and threats.”
According to the investigation by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) allegedly promised to pay Wang NT$15 million (US$506,757) per year to operate the Web site Fire News (燎原新聞網), which he launched in 2014 with its registered address at the New Party’s Taipei headquarters.
Prosecutors said Chinese national Zhou Hongxu (周泓旭), who was on Sept. 15 last year convicted on espionage charges, acted as a consultant to promote the Web site.
The two men allegedly organized seminars and group events to recruit Taiwanese for Chinese government networks and to pass on sensitive materials, the prosecutors’ office said.
Wang was arrested and questioned last month in connection with Zhou’s espionage case along with fellow New Party Youth Corps members Hou Han-ting (侯漢廷), Lin Ming-cheng (林明正) and Chen Ssu-chun (陳斯俊).
According to investigators, Zhou was instructed by the TAO to recruit current and retired military personnel through Wang as part of an operation codenamed “Star Fire T Project” (星火T計劃), which offered financial rewards depending on the value and level of the contacts.
Prosecutors said that Hou and Lin provided personal information on the six men for Zhou to use in recruitment efforts, while Wang and Chen had reportedly encouraged young people to sign up for military schools with the aim that they might become spies or moles and perhaps even rise to become high-ranking officers.
In related news, Taipei prosecutors yesterday confirmed that members of the public have filed legal complaints against Wang and two other New Party members for allegedly violating the National Security Act (國家安全法), and that a separate investigation against them has been launched.
It was also reported that prosecutors are investigating the source and channels of distribution of the alleged TAO funding for Fire News and additional activities, along with the allegation that Wang’s father had received US$20,000 in cash from the TAO, but “lost it.”
Investigators reportedly have evidence that Lin received monthly bank deposits of NT$25,000, which matched the amount listed by Zhou in his Fire News 2015 Year-end Working Report, and that information from files in Zhou’s computer had been corroborated by files found in possession of the four arrested New Party members.
Prosecutors said the material pointed to the men’s close cooperation in developing networks funded by China, which would contravene the National Security Act.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS