The Tainan branch of the High Prosecutors’ Office has indicted 23 people, including eight active servicemen, on charges of spying for China.
Tainan prosecutors launched an investigation in April after the Political Warfare Bureau received a tip-off from a soldier in 2022, the branch said on Wednesday.
Forty-nine people were summoned for questioning, following four waves of searches in 29 locations.
Photo: Taipei Times file
Cellphones, computers, nine pieces of confidential military information and one classified document were seized.
The alleged ringleaders, two brothers surnamed Hsu (許), and another accomplice surnamed Sun (孫), were held incommunicado, the branch said.
The eight servicemen, who allegedly spied on military bases nationwide, were from three branches of the armed forces and the Coast Guard Administration.
The highest-ranked officer served as an army captain, prosecutors said.
The Hsu brothers were found to have traveled several times to Macau and the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Zhuhai in China’s Guandong Province, where they were recruited in September 2021 by two Chinese businessmen tasked with collecting Taiwan-related military information, prosecutors said.
From January 2022, the Hsu brothers lured Sun and 12 other people, offering them NT$2,000 to NT$30,000 (US$63 to US$939) for each active serviceman they recruited, they said.
The two also sought to woo active servicemen who were in debt through pawnshops and online loan companies, encouraging them to steal military information or secretly photograph military bases, the prosecutors said.
The Hsu brothers allegedly approached 21 active servicemen, with eight agreeing to obtain information and send intelligence to them and Sun, who would reproduce the information and send it to their Chinese associates, they added.
Prosecutors estimated that the Hsu brothers made up to NT$3.97 million in illicit gains over the past two years, while Sun made up to NT$266,400.
The eight indicted active servicemen might have also earned between NT$10,000 and NT$193,736, prosecutors said.
They were indicted on charges of contravening the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
The Hsu brothers, Sun and the 12 other suspects were indicted on charges of breaking the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act. No additional details on how the 12 suspects were involved was provided.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS