Sat, Mar 04, 2000 page1

• `Spy' claims Lee's mistake cost lives

  • By William Ide / STAFF REPORTER
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  A businessman who says he spied for Taiwan in China sobbed yesterday while blaming President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) for leaking information he claimed helped Chinese authorities hunt down and execute two spies who were his close friends.

  Fighting the tears at first, then weeping, Chang Chih-peng (張志鵬), told of how he fled to Taiwan in 1996 with missile intelligence.

  This information was later leaked when President Lee Teng-hui made an off-the-cuff remark, allowing the capture of his two sources, Major General Liu Liankun (劉連昆) and Brigadier General Shao Zhengzhong (邵正忠). The two Chinese generals were executed last August by lethal injection.

  "They didn't have to work for us," Chang said as he cried. "But Liu wanted to live in Taiwan some day, and I pledged to treat him as my brother."

  Military sources said yesterday that they doubted the authenticity of Chang's story and believed his emotional display was politically motivated.

  Accompanied by lawmaker Roy Chou (周錫瑋), a key campaign official for independent presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜), Chang told of how he was a former agent and how he was recruited in 1990 when he worked at a factory in China.

  Showing evidence at the press conference -- including maps of military bases and recordings he said were of Liu's voice -- Chang said he had collected films about Chinese military bases and tapes that showed Beijing was incapable of launching an invasion of Taiwan and that Chinese missiles only carried accuracy-detecting devices.

  After he fled to Taiwan, Chang said, China froze his assets in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

  Taiwanese authorities ignored his plea to hold a funeral for the executed generals and to save Shao's girlfriend, who had fled to Spain, from being deported back to the mainland.

  "To serve and then be treated like this in the end, who would want to come and work [for Taiwan's military]," Chang said.

  Last week, Lee said he did not leak information about the missiles, which were fired into sea lanes off Kaohsiung and Keelung during the runup to the 1996 presidential elections. The president said he had only guessed that the missiles were unarmed.

  The Ministry of national Defense has refused to comment on the allegations. A ministry spokesman said no nation would discuss in public its intelligence network.

  One military source, who wished to remain anonymous, said, however, he doubted the authenticity of Chang's story. "The political purpose of this is obvious," the source said.

  Echoing the military's stance, the source said, a spy wouldn't reveal details of operative work. "It goes against his code. Chou must know this too," he added.

  Much like other individuals who have recently come forward claiming the government had either betrayed or short-changed them, Chang may just be hawking his story for cash, the source said.

  Chang said that for his troubles the government had only given him NT$150,000 in compensation.
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