A former army general got his just deserts for the life sentence he received in betraying his country and spying for China, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) said yesterday.
The spokesman said Lo Hsien-che (羅賢哲) — a one-star general — fell into a sex trap during his stationing in Thailand and leaked military secrets to Chinese officials, later accepting payment for his espionage activities.
“Lo Hsien-che’s deeds have undermined national interests, endangered national security, and have a devastating impact on the military’s reputation and morale,” Lo said.
The remarks came after a local newspaper reported that Lo Hsien-che, who is serving life imprisonment, wrote letters to his family recently claiming he was treated unjustly by the military court and asked for a judicial retrial.
The Chinese-language China Times cited Lo Hsien-che claiming in his letter that he was “set up” by the US FBI because he opposed weapons purchases from the US, drawing the ire of some politicians and arms dealers in both Taiwan and the US.
Lo Hsien-che was quoted as saying that during his visit to the US in late August 2010 for a conference, FBI agents met him at Hilton Hawaiian Village and forced him to confess that he spied for China in a videotape.
The tape was turned over to Taiwan on Oct. 30 that year.
The media reports said that during the two-month period, the US had tried to solicit Lo Hsien-che to work as a double agent, meaning that he would provide fake information to China and leak intelligence collected on Taiwan to the US.
After Lo Hsien-che refused the offer, the US decided to hand over the tape to Taiwan, which started the investigation that led to his arrest in January 2011.
Before his arrest, he had served as director of the communications and electronic information department at Army Command Headquarters since his return from Thailand in 2005.
Lo Hsien-che was sentenced to life imprisonment by Taiwan’s military high court in July 2011 for engaging in espionage, handing military secrets to the enemy and accepting payment for actions that were in violation of his military duties.
Engaging in espionage activities for China carries the death penalty or life imprisonment in Taiwan under the Armed Forces Criminal Act (陸海空軍刑法).
Since Lo Hsien-che confessed to his deeds, he was given life imprisonment instead of the death sentence, the court said.
Lo Hsien-che appealed the case to the Supreme Military Court, but the court upheld the sentence.
He later appealed his case to the Supreme Court, the highest ruling body in Taiwan.
The 54-year-old officer reportedly had access to information on a Taiwan-US military cooperation project known as Po Sheng, which involved communication links between the armed forces of the two countries.
Lo Hsien-che is the highest-ranking Taiwanese officer to be caught spying for China in nearly five decades.
He is thought to have been recruited by Chinese agents in 2004 in Thailand, where he was posted between 2002 and 2005.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
RSS