Taipei prosecutors yesterday indicted four former military personnel, including three who were responsible for security at the Presidential Office Building, on charges of selling state secrets to China.
The three men served in the 211th Military Police Battalion — surnamed Lai (賴), Lee (黎) and Lin (林) — while the fourth, surnamed Chen (陳), served in the Ministry of National Defense’s Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command.
All four have been detained, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Photo: CNA
Lai served from August 2015 to November last year, Chen from December 2017 to July last year, Lee from 2018 to February, and Lin from 2021 to August, it said.
From the end of 2021 to the beginning of 2022, Lai and Chen were allegedly brought into the scheme by a man surnamed Huang (黃), who is currently wanted, on behalf of China’s intelligence agents, prosecutors said.
Starting in April 2022, Chen used his cellphone to take photographs of classified documents before passing them on to Lai and Chen, or Chinese agents, prosecutors said.
From March or April last year to August this year, Chen, operating under an alias, started to seek out fellow soldiers who would be willing spy on behalf of China for rewards, prosecutors said.
He forwarded the information of one active-duty soldier to Lai, although the soldier did not agree to join the scheme, prosecutors said.
Lai and Chen were compensated by the level of sensitivity of information provided to the agents, and how many fellow soldiers they contacted as part of the scheme, prosecutors said.
In October 2022, Lai was transferred to a new unit, and he referred Lee to his old unit, who continued the scheme by using his cellphone to take photographs of official documents and pass them on to agents, prosecutors said.
After Lee was discharged from the military, he introduced Lin to the unit, who continued the espionage activities from January of this year onward, they said.
In total, prosecutors estimated that Lai received NT$460,000 (US$14,194), Chen NT$450,000, Lee NT$664,100 and Lin NT$265,900 as rewards.
After being tipped off by officers and soldiers, the defense ministry referred the case to the Keelung military police and the Ministry of Justice, which began to review personnel involved and trace financial transactions before transferring the case to the prosecutors’ office.
In August, prosecutors searched and questioned Lai and the others, all of whom confessed, prosecutors said.
The office concluded its investigation and charged the four with accepting bribes in contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and the National Security Act (國家安全法) in exchange for collecting state secrets on behalf of China.
Presidential Office spokesman Lii Wen (李問) said that China continues to undermine Taiwan’s hard-fought democratic freedoms, and that any treasonous behavior by soldiers or officers must be fully prosecuted.
Officials would strengthen efforts to protect state secrets and closely supervise units, he said, adding that to defend the country, the public and the army must be united.
The defense ministry confirmed that it began an investigation after receiving reports about the soldiers’ alleged misconduct, but it cannot comment on ongoing legal cases.
The armed forces would continue to closely monitor for espionage, strengthen efforts to enhance national security education and cooperate with other agencies to safeguard national security, it added.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
RSS