The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a five-year prison sentence imposed by a lower court on a former military intelligence officer who was found guilty of spying for China.
Chen Shu-lung (陳蜀龍), a retired major who worked at the Ministry of National Defense’s Military Intelligence Bureau, was recruited by Chinese intelligence authorities in 2006, the court said in its verdict.
In 2007, Chen secretly informed the Chinese authorities that one of his former colleagues had served as a diplomat in Japan.
Chen later tricked the former diplomat into meeting him in Shanghai, where the man was detained and interrogated for three days by Chinese intelligence officers.
During his detention, the former diplomat was questioned about his work in Japan and the identity of National Security Bureau staff members, according to the verdict.
In October last year, the Taiwan High Court sentenced Chen to eight years in prison, but he appealed the decision and the term was reduced to five years in July.
Chen then filed another appeal against the shortened sentence, but the Supreme Court upheld the five-year prison sentence.
In another espionage case involving Chen, which is still being tried in the High Court, Chen is accused of passing information about Falun Gong activities in Taiwan and Taiwan’s military planning to China through Chen Chu-fan (陳筑藩), a lieutenant-general who allegedly recruited him on behalf of the Chinese.
Chen Chu-fan once served as a deputy commander of the military police command.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
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