A former National Security Bureau agent responsible for protecting former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was detained on suspicion of espionage, prompting lawmakers to call for increased penalties for people caught spying for China.
Major Wang Hung-ju (王鴻儒), a former agent of the Special Service Command Center, was arrested on Monday for allegedly attempting to develop a spy network for China.
Wang allegedly attempted to recruit a Military Police Command intelligence officer surnamed Tseng (曾) to gather information about operations in exchange for a large cash payment and safe relocation to China if Tseng was exposed. Tseng rejected the offer.
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
Wang’s activity was discovered by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau during a probe into Taiwanese businessman Ho Chih-chiang (何志強), who in 2010 was sentenced to 14 months in prison for attempting to recruit a security bureau official to collect information about overseas national security officials; the security bureau’s satellite communication system; Taiwan’s Japan policy and “secret diplomacy”; the Tibetan independence movement; and Falun Gong activities.
Wang, a former military police officer, was transferred to the security bureau’s special service unit in 2002 to protect Lu.
He retired in 2003 and was allegedly recruited by Chinese intelligence operatives in 2009.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) yesterday said that no active military personnel are involved in Wang’s espionage ring.
The ministry has counterintelligence measures in place and warns active and soon-to-be-retired soldiers and officers against spying for China, he said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus called for increased penalties for people caught spying for China, as offenders are handed moderate prison terms.
Among those convicted of Chinese espionage in recent years, former navy lieutenants Chien Ching-kuo (錢經國) and Lu Chun-chun (盧俊均) were sentenced to 10 months in prison in 2014, while last year former Chinese People’s Liberation Army officer Zheng Xiaojiang (鎮小江) and retired Republic of China Army major general Hsu Nai-chuan (許乃權) were sentenced to a four-year and a two-year-and-10-month prison term respectively.
“Those were cases that caused a national uproar, but only lenient punishments were given,” DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
The Criminal Code stipulates a prison sentence of three to 10 years for people disclosing national secrets to a foreign state, but China is not seen as a foreign state due to the complicated cross-strait political relationship, DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said.
Spying for China is punishable according to the National Security Act (國家安全法), which stipulates a prison sentence of one to seven years.
“Chinese spies and Taiwanese spying for China have exploited the legal inconsistency to avoid heavier criminal sentences,” Chao said.
Chao proposed amending the National Security Act to increase the prison sentence for espionage to three to 10 years.
A preliminary review of the proposal was completed in the previous legislative session.
Chao and Chen Chi-mai called on the legislature to finalize the review this session to ensure that Chinese spies would be duly punished.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS