Four retired Taiwanese military intelligence officers, including a general, have been indicted on charges of spying for China, the Taipei District Attorney’s Office said Saturday, Feb. 20.
The Taipei District Attorney’s Office charged the four suspects with collecting classified information and developing an espionage network for Beijing. According to the prosecution, since 2012, two former Taiwanese colonels introduced several colleagues to a Chinese national security official, including Major General Yue, one of the four accused officers in this case.
According to the Central News Agency, the four are, retired Major General Yue Chi-chung of Taiwan‘s Military Intelligence Agency, and retired Colonels Chang Chao-ran, Chou Tien-tzu and Wang Da-wang. They are suspected of being absorbed by the Chinese Guangdong Provincial State Security Department’s intelligence officers on Taiwan to develop organizations and collect intelligence for China. The case began in 1999 when a retired Taiwan Military Intelligence colonel surnamed Lu was arrested in a wreck on the mainland, and Chang Chaoran was asked to rescue him and met “Mr. Wei” who was then absorbed and instructed to introduce the retired Military Intelligence officers to the mainland.
The Taipei prosecutors filed charges against the four retired military intelligence officers under Taiwan’s National Security Law and National Intelligence Law.
The Taiwanese prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the “suspects” were aware of the confrontation between our country and the Chinese Communist Party (……) but they coveted illegal benefits such as (Chinese offers of) benefits to do business in the country, financial incentives and free travel.”
Beijing has increased pressure on Taipei since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen took power in 2016, and Tsai’s party has traditionally advocated a formal declaration of independence for the island. Yet this is an absolute red line for the Chinese authorities.
Last October, a Taiwan court had sentenced a lieutenant colonel to four years in prison for spying for Beijing. And Chinese state media had reported that Beijing cracked down on “hundreds” of cases of espionage involving Taiwan, arresting “a group of Taiwanese spies and their accomplices.”
AFP said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have been spying on each other since 1949, when Kuomintang troops lost a civil war with the Communists on mainland China and retreated to Taiwan to establish a government hostile to Beijing. Beijing considers the island a province of China that must eventually be reunified by force if necessary.
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