A former Taiwanese intelligence officer said yesterday he planned to defect to Beijing after Taipei ignored appeals for compensation over business losses he suffered as a result of his espionage work.
A weeping Chang Chih-peng (張志鵬), 78, told reporters he had booked a flight to Beijing for tomorrow.
"I don't want to die in Taiwan," said Chang, a businessman who worked for Taiwan's military intelligence authorities for six years, labelling the nation's spying chiefs "ruthless."
"Under the circumstances, I would rather report to Beijing," he said.
In December Chang filed a lawsuit against former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) alleging careless talk had allowed China to break a major espionage ring.
Chang claimed that a comment by Lee during the 1996 Taiwan Strait missile crisis had led to some spies being jailed and cost him his factory in China.
The spy ring, centered around Chang, discovered China was only going to use dummy warheads in missile tests conducted ahead of Taiwan's first presidential polls in March 1996.
In the run-up to the election, the Chinese military staged three missile tests over waters near Taiwan in an attempt to scare voters out of supporting pro-independence candidates.
However Lee, then seeking re-election, urged people to stay calm since "the missiles carry only dummy warheads."
Chang said Lee's public disclosure of the confidential information had immediately aroused Beijing's suspicion and led to a massive investigation, with the spy ring eventually being broken in 1999.
He said his factory in China was confiscated by Chinese authorities and a number of people were arrested.
Among those was Yao Chia-chen (姚嘉珍), business manager of Chang's Hong Kong office, who was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
"I could no longer handle the mounting pressure," Chang said.
"Hopefully they will have Yao's imprisonment term reduced after I report to China's intelligence authorities," he said.
Lee has denied the allegation, saying he was not aware the warheads would be dummies and that his statement had merely been a guess.
Chang's key contacts -- Chinese Major General Liu Liankun (劉連昆) and Colonel Shao Zhengzhong (邵正忠) -- were tracked down and executed in August 1999.
Chang said that Taiwanese authorities didn't want Taiwan's spies to come back to Taiwan from China, preferring that they die there. He claimed that his daughter will release more secrets to US media after his would-be-arrest in China.
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