Suspected Chinese spy Liao Hsien-ping (廖憲平), a former Taiwanese spy stationed in the Philippines, was arrested by special agents from the Bureau of Investigation late Tuesday night and detained after a Taoyuan court approved a request by prosecutors.
A bureau press release said that Liao, 60, had served as a special agent for the Military Intelligence Agency since graduation.
He was stationed in Manila until he was forced to retire because of involvement in fraud. He was convicted over the matter in 1995. After serving two years in a Philippine jail, Chinese security agents bailed him out and hired him as an agent. He went to Fujian Province for training, then moved back to Taiwan in 2000.
"He has been working as a cab driver, but he was actually collecting information for the Chinese authorities," a press release read. "His main job was to collect and tabulate information on Falun Gong members and their families in Taiwan."
The bureau's investigation showed that many Falun Gong members could not return to or enter China, Hong Kong or Macau because local authorities had received information from Liao and had placed them on a list of people to be refused entry.
The press release also mentioned that pro-Taiwan Hong Kong Legislator Liu Hui-ching (劉慧卿) was targeted by China because of Liao's work.
In addition to collecting information on his own accord, bureau agents said they discovered that two of Liao's former colleagues, retired Colonel Chang Tzu-hsin (張祖馨), and an employee at the National Police Agency's Immigration Office, Sung Wan-ling (宋婉玲), were involved in gathering information.
Taoyuan prosecutors also summoned them, with Chang and Sung admitting to helping Liao with his work. But prosecutors decided to release them after questioning.
According to the Taoyuan District Prosecutor's Office, the case was not serious enough to constitute a threat to the national security, but did qualify as an offense under the Criminal Code.
Prosecutors said Liao had received at least NT$1.7 million from the Chinese authorities for his information.
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