Four separate cases have been opened over alleged leaks of national security secrets involving Taiwan’s submarine program, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
Admiral Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光), who heads the Indigenous Defense Submarine program, on Thursday last week said that “certain legislators” were making it difficult for the program to purchase critical equipment.
Retired navy captain Kuo Hsi (郭璽) on the same day said that Huang was referring to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君).
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Ma allegedly leaked files from the submarine program to the Chinese Communist Party and the South Korean Mission in Taipei, Kuo added.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said that the High Prosecutors’ Office would lead treason investigations.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office would determine whether claims that Chinese spies or organizations affiliated with China were involved would constitute a breach of the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法), the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said.
The Taipei office would also launch a separate investigation into disputes between contractors that submitted bids for the program, it said.
Ma has said that she was given blueprints and other files, whose authenticity was difficult to ascertain, in January last year, as well as recordings that Kuo said were of him.
Ma said she forwarded the material to the Ministry of National Defense, but it had told her the content was a result of “bad blood” between competing contractors and the information was not sensitive.
Ma said she had later asked the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau to open a probe into the matter.
She reached out to the South Korean office via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and forwarded the recordings to it as well, she said.
The Investigation Bureau confirmed that it had received the request from Ma, a source said on condition of anonymity.
The bureau forwarded the matter to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office, the source said.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office yesterday instructed the Kaohsiung office to continue its investigation.
Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said at the Legislative Yuan that he respected ongoing investigations.
Ma asked Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) why a “controversial individual” like Kuo was hired as a consultant for the submarine program.
Kuo had prior knowledge of such matters, Chiu said, adding that the navy had suspended his consultancy after a year because “he crossed some lines.”
Ma later told reporters that she was innocent of any alleged wrongdoing and that the judicial proceedings would determine the truth.
Former minister of national defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) called on Ma to resign and cancel her re-election campaign to demonstrate her resolve to work with the investigation.
Taiwan Statebuilding Party Chairman Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) said that Chiu’s “appeasement” of Ma and calling her “hard-working” was incredible.
Additional reporting by Wu Su-wei
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS