The Ministry of National Defense yesterday confirmed that three retired military officers had been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, in what legislators described as one of the nation’s worst cases of espionage.
The Ministry of National Defense said that Commander Chang Chih-hsin (張祉鑫), former director of the political warfare department of Naval Meteorological & Oceanographic Office (METOC), was indicted by military prosecutors on suspicion of working as an agent for the Chinese.
“Chang, who initiated contact with Chinese officials while still serving in the navy, was suspected of luring his former colleagues and making illegal gains,” the ministry said.
Ministry spokesman David Lo (羅紹和) confirmed two other former military officers had also been arrested in connection with the case.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that Chang was arrested by military authorities at his home in Greater Kaohsiung last month as he was about to travel to China.
Because Chang had access to the submarine fleet’s nautical charts and marine environment data, the confidential information could have been leaked to China, the newspaper said, adding that Taiwan’s submarine fleet may have been compromised.
It quoted a retired naval general as saying METOC kept highly classified information, such as maps and charts of the meteorological and oceanographic battle environments.
Chang retired from the military in May and went to China in August.
The newspaper criticized the ministry for not barring Chang from going to China after he retired.
Lo did not say what kind of military information Chang had allegedly sold to China, but played down the possible damage to Taiwan’s security, saying “Chang had limited access to METOC’s sensitive information.”
According to a ministry statement, military prosecutors had begun investigating Chang even before he retired.
Naval authorities adopted anti-espionage measures as soon as they were tipped off about Chang’s plans and transferred the case to the Military Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation after acquiring the initial evidence, the statement said.
Several other retired military officers have been arrested on suspicion of espionage and the military has taken various damage control steps, Lo said.
The ministry also denied that any officer in active service is involved.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus told a press conference yesterday that the repeated espionage cases reflected President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) pro-China mentality, which has relaxed the military’s vigilance against Chinese hostility and has confused military personnel in regard to their duties.
“It was very embarrassing when the officer who was supposed to guard the secrets became the one who sold them to China,” DPP caucus director-general Pan Men-an (潘孟安) told a press conference.
The DPP caucus demanded the ministry hold those responsible accountable and conduct a thorough review of the existing regulations, as well investigate the failure to implement current mechanisms before reporting to the legislature.
“The regulations and mechanisms are in place. The problem was that they were not appropriately implemented and the review process of the retired military personnel’s visit to China was obviously flawed,” DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said.
Tsai said the case was the “tip of the iceberg” because similar cases have been found in the army, navy and air force in the past year.
The lawmaker urged the ministry to reclassify the confidential levels of secrets and redefine the meaning of secrets to prevent espionage cases in the future.
DPP legislators Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) and Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said it was time for Ma to review his China policy because recent espionage cases showed that Taiwanese businesspeople and military personnel did not know how to appropriately assess cross-strait relations.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) also commented on the case.
“This has gravely endangered Taiwan’s security. It’s a shame for the military,” KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) told reporters. “We demand severe punishment to deter the recurrence of such cases.”
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS