Print

Mail

wiki links

Ex-NSB official denies passing secrets to China

Former National Security Bureau (NSB) official Pan Hsi-hsien (潘希賢), who returned to Taiwan on Saturday after an unauthorized four-year stay in China, yesterday said he did not pass any national secrets to the Chinese authorities.

Pan, speaking at a press conference yesterday, said that if it could be shown he had taken classified data to China, as some newspapers reported, then he would be willing to accept the severest punishment the law could provide.

Pan left for China on June 4, 2000, only days after he retired from the bureau, where he was the director of the personnel department. He had retired at the rank of major general.

At the time, Pan was suspected to have taken classified information to China, but Pan's family insisted that he only left to work at a company in Guangdong Province run by a former military colleague.

Pan was detained for two months by Chinese authorities after his departure was reported by the Taiwanese press. But after his release, Pan could not be contacted and did not return to Taiwan.

But Pan claimed to have done nothing wrong.

"As a career officer, I owe a lot to the country. I did nothing harmful to the National Security Bureau or the country," Pan said.

Pan also said he did not know that there were rules forbidding his actions.

"During my detention by the Chinese security authorities, I was treated very nicely. I did not suffer torture or forced interrogation," he said.
This story has been viewed 2335 times.