The High Court’s Kaohsiung branch on Thursday sentenced a naval officer to one-and-a-half years in prison after convicting him of stealing classified documents from onboard the Republic of China Navy vessel Cheng De.
The officer can appeal the ruling.
Prosecutors in 2018 searched the residence of chief petty officer Hung Ching-cheng (洪景政), 40, in Kaohsiung, where he had stored downloaded materials from the Kang Ding-class frigate, 130 files of which were highly classified military documents.
Prosecutors, who requested the court to impose a severe sentence, charged Hung with leaking confidential military information, a breach of Article 22 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法), along with contravening provisions under the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法).
As justification for a harsh sentence, they pointed to the charge of “crimes of treason,” regarding which Article 103 of the military’s criminal code states: “Any person colluding with a foreign state or its agent with intent that such state or other state start war against the Republic of China shall be sentenced to death or life imprisonment... Any person preparing or conspiring to commit an offense specified in Paragraph 1 shall be sentenced to imprisonment not less than three years, but not more than 10 years.”
However, the court decided on a prison term of less than two years after only convicting Hung of lesser offenses — of obtaining computer files without authorization from another person.
Hung was in charge of the frigate’s telecommunications systems and used his duties to enter the vessel’s Combat Information Center, where he downloaded the high-level military and national security materials, investigators said, adding that the downloading started in 1998, still occurred in 2003 and ended in January 2017.
After prosecutors presented the evidence for his indictment, the navy discharged Hung.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS