Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday.
China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month.
Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be spies, adding that the video aimed to “build a strong anti-espionage consciousness among the Chinese public, leaving spies nowhere to hide.”
Photo: Screen grab from China Central Television
Among cases highlighted in the video were the arrests of Cheng, US-based Chinese overseas community representative John Shing-Wan Leung (梁成運), former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian businessman Michael Spavor.
It said that Leung, who was mentioned in detail in the video, was recruited by the US as an informant.
The video also said that Leung worked in many overseas Chinese associations under the command of various US agencies and made many charitable donations to China, creating an image of being a “patriotic philanthropist.”
It said that Leung had obtained intelligence from Chinese institutions and personnel in the US through spying, surveillance and theft. Leung also arranged hotel rooms equipped with surveillance equipment for people visiting the US from China, and used sex acts to coerce and incite visiting Chinese personnel, it added.
Cheng, who was also discussed at length in the video, was arrested when he entered China in April 2019, it said. The video said that he had met with Taiwanese national security officials while he was a PhD student at Charles University in Prague, and gave them intelligence-related research reports.
The video also said that after returning to Taiwan from the Czech Republic, Cheng was recruited by the National Security Bureau to go to China to collect intelligence and identify Chinese officials who “could instigate a rebellion,” it said.
It also said that the political and economic research center in the Czech Republic which Cheng was director of was established Taiwan’s Military Intelligence Bureau at Cheng’s suggestion.
“The title of director allowed me to participate in more meetings of international organizations,” Cheng was shown saying in the video.
The ministry said Cheng used this title and his status as a professor at Charles University to participate in international conferences to collect information about the “views of relevant countries on major issues” related to China, adding that Cheng also used conferences as a means to establish contacts with Chinese scholars to obtain intelligence.
It said that Cheng had been paid NT$2.76 million (US$85,467) by the Taiwanese government for these services.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has previously denied China’s claims about Cheng, saying in October 2020 that he is not a professor at Charles University. Cho at the time also said that he did not know Cheng, and that claims of Cheng being his assistant were untrue.
While the Mainland Affairs Council yesterday did not comment on the video released by China, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said China’s claims about Cho in the video were aimed at sowing distrust in Lai’s government ahead of his inauguration.
Beijing was also attempting to scare Taiwanese academics and the Democratic Progressive Party government by dredging up old espionage cases, he said.
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