The High Court has overturned a previous acquittal of former air force officer Lou Wen-ching (樓文卿) in a Chinese spying case. Lou was convicted for passing military secrets to China and was handed a 17-year prison sentence and would be deprived of his civil rights for 10 years. The decision was made at a second trial yesterday, following an acquittal in September 2020.
Former air force officers — colonel Ko Chi-hsien (葛季賢) and lieutenant colonel Lou Wen-ching (樓文卿) — were recruited by spy networks set up by Chinese intelligence officer Zhen Xiaojiang (鎮小江), who enticed them with financial rewards, investigators said.
Investigators presented evidence of Lou and Ko conducting espionage activities and obtaining classified materials, which they passed to Zhen, who had recruited a number of military officers to develop a spy network.
Photo: Taipei Times file
The case also embroiled retired army major general Hsu Nai-chuan (許乃權).
The High Court previously cited insufficient evidence and inconsistencies in testimonies in its decision to acquit Lou and Ko, but the prosecution appealed and the case was returned to the court for a retrial.
After another round of investigations, the judges ruled there was sufficient evidence that Lou stole classified military materials from the air force units and passed it to China. Lou was found guilty of contravening Article 17 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法) for “committing an act of espionage for an enemy.”
The court handed Lou a 17-year prison sentence, which is considered a severe penalty, as most spying case convictions in the past decade usually only resulted in three to four-year prison sentences. Lou was also ordered to forfeit US$4,000 and an additional NT$50,000 of criminal proceeds.
Meanwhile, the court upheld the acquittal for Ko, citing insufficient evidence.
The ruling for both defendants can still be appealed.
Zhen, a retired Chinese People’s Liberation Army captain, was arrested in 2014.
Investigators said he had operated the largest Chinese spy network in Taiwan in recent decades.
He offered up to US$10,000 for top secret information on Taiwan’s Leshan Radar Station in Hsinchu County, deployment plans for military drills and pilot training for French-made Mirage 2000 jet fighters.
Successive court rulings have upheld the guilty verdicts on Zhen and Hsu, convicting them of contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法).
Zhen in 2016 received a four-year prison term and Hsu received a two-year and 10-month sentence.
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
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
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
RSS