Prosecutors yesterday formally indicted former Chinese student and alleged spy Zhou Hongxu (周泓旭) on charges of violating the National Security Act (國家安全法), with investigators saying that Zhou offered a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official US$10,000 to pass on classified government materials.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office concluded a four-month investigation by pressing charges against Zhou, 29, who allegedly attempted to develop a spy network on the orders of the Chinese government.
Zhou, from China’s Liaoning Provice, came to Taiwan as an exchange student at Tamkang University in 2009, enrolled in a master of business administration program at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in September 2012 and graduated in July last year.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
He later returned to Taiwan for work.
During the investigation, Zhou admitted to spying and attempting to recruit Taiwanese officials, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor Chang Chieh-chin (張介欽) said, adding that as Zhou provided details of his espionage, prosecutors would request a reduced sentence.
“While studying at NCCU, Zhou in 2014 traveled to Shanghai to attend a conference on cross-strait dialogue, where he met a Chinese official surnamed Li (李),” Chang said. “The two men developed a good relationship and met a number of times in China from November 2014 to January.”
“Li reportedly told Zhou that he could pay him to ‘carry out tasks’ while studying and working in Taiwan,” Chang said.
Li allegedly directed Zhou to become acquainted with Taiwanese politicians and people working in military, police, intelligence and foreign affairs agencies, he said.
Zhou was allegedly told to try to get such individuals to take trips abroad, where they would be met by Chinese officials, he added.
“Li promised to generously reward Zhou according to the level and importance of Taiwanese figures he recruited,” Chang said.
The investigation found that Zhou joined a number of social networks and attended functions to make friends in the nation, where he established a relationship with a Ministry of Foreign Affairs junior official, codenamed “Mr A,” who had access to top-level government materials.
Zhou allegedly tried to persuade “Mr A” to work for the Chinese government by passing on classified materials, offering US$10,000 per quarter, Chang said, adding that Zhou had made preparations for his asset to travel to Japan to meet with Chinese officials.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,