An appeal by convicted Chinese spy Zhou Hongxu (周泓旭) against the Taiwan High Court extending his detention was yesterday rejected by the Supreme Court.
Zhou, 30, was on Sept. 15 last year given a 14-month sentence by the Taipei District Court for violating the National Security Act (國家安全法) after being found guilty of attempting to develop spy networks in Taiwan.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, who Zhou attempted to bribe in exchange for classified information, reported his actions to the authorities, leading to his arrest and indictment in March last year.
Both Zhou and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office appealed the ruling.
Zhou last year appealed for bail, but the Taiwan High Court in December last year decided to extend his detention by two more months until Feb. 27 this year, prompting Zhou to appeal to the Supreme Court.
With the Supreme Court’s rejection, Zhou, who has been detained since March 10 last year, has exhausted his appeals.
Zhou in 2012 moved to Taiwan to enroll in a National Chengchi University MBA program. He returned to China in September 2016, before traveling back to Taiwan in February last year, ostensibly as a management investor.
An investigation into several members of the pro-unification New Party, who are suspected of colluding with Zhou to establish spy networks for China, is still being prepared by the Taiwan High Court.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
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