A former deputy chief of news desk at the Military News Agency, was on Wednesday sentenced to five years and six months in prison for espionage and attempting to recruit fellow officers to spy for China.
Lieutenant colonel Kung Fan-chia (孔繁嘉), 54, was convicted of violating the National Security Act (國家安全法) and of breaching his “official duties” by demanding or accepting bribes or other improper benefits in contravention of the Criminal Code, as the Military News Agency is a state media outlet managed by the Ministry of National Defense.
The Taoyuan District Court also ordered that the US$117,000 and 60,000 yuan (US$8.267) Kung received from his Chinese handlers be confiscated.
Photo: Chou Min-hung, Taipei Times
The ruling can be appealed.
Judicial investigators found that Kung in 2006 met with Chinese intelligence officials based in Xiamen City in China’s Fujian Province and agreed to spy for the Beijing government.
Kung thereafter sought fellow military officers to form a spy network to access confidential materials and reports on Taiwan’s armed forces.
He tried to recruit fellow officers, including those working at the Military News Agency, by offering rewards and promises of all-expense paid trips to Southeast Asian countries, where they met with Chinese officials who would entice them with monetary rewards to spy for China, investigators said.
In the ruling, the judges condemned Kung for “selling out his country” after being educated and trained by the Taiwanese military.
He “betrayed his official duties by accepting bribes for spying,” which had “brought dishonor to the military’s code of honor and state civil servants,” and had harmed the nation by secretly working for China to develop a spy network for more than 10 years,” the ruling said.
In a separate case, a Chinese woman surnamed Lin (林) was yesterday convicted of forgery of documents to obtain permanent resident status and sentenced to 14 months in prison, which can be commuted to a fine.
An investigation found that Lin had deceived local government agencies by using the identity papers of a friend — another Chinese woman surnamed Ou (歐), who was at the time married to a Taiwanese — to file for divorce, and forged other documents to gain permanent resident status to live and work in Taiwan.
After taking on Ou’s identity, Lin took 18 trips overseas between 2007 and 2018. The last time she applied to enter Taiwan in November 2022, she admitted to National Immigration Agency officers that she had used forged documents, leading to an investigation by public prosecutors in Kaohsiung.
In other developments, the Aviation Police Bureau yesterday charged a Chinese man surnamed Zhang (張), 55, of theft during flights to Taiwan this year.
Bureau investigators said that after receiving reports from air passengers of missing money and valuables from carry-on luggage, they checked video footage and saw Zhang, during flights from China and Southeast Asia to Taiwan, opening the overhead compartment on the pretense of taking out his things, but instead opening other people’s luggage to steal their belongings.
Bureau officials searched Zhang after a flight in April and found 16 different foreign currencies and valuable items belonging to other passengers.
Zhang was charged with aggravated theft by Taoyuan prosecutors.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS