The Kaohsiung Branch of the High Court yesterday found retired air force colonel Liu Sheng-shu (劉聖恕) guilty of operating an espionage network for China, handing him a 20-year prison term.
The verdict is subject to appeal.
Five of Liu’s six codefendants — a group consisting mainly of active-duty military officers ranked major to colonel — also received guilty verdicts with sentences ranging from six months to 20 years and six months.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The sentences were some of the heaviest imposed on military service members implicated in espionage-related crimes in the past few years, Chinese-language media reported.
The court said that Liu had contravened the Classified National Security Information Act (國家機密保護法) from 2013 through 2021.
In 2013, Liu visited China on a business trip and was approached by members of Beijing’s intelligence services, who convinced him to collect intelligence on the Taiwanese armed forces, the court said.
Under instructions from his handlers, Liu recruited informants in the nation’s military and stole secrets, while one or more shell corporations were created to disguise payments he received from China, it said.
Military officers compromised in the scheme include a female major surnamed Liu (劉), who was sentenced to 20 years and six months, and a lieutenant colonel surnamed Sun (孫), who was sentenced to 19 years and six months.
A major surnamed Kung (龔) received a sentence of three years and six months, a major surnamed Deng (鄧) was sentenced to two years and a man surnamed Lin (林) received a six-month sentence.
Another major among those indicted, surnamed Liu (劉), was acquitted of all charges.
A major surnamed Cheng (鄭), who was formerly posted at the Songshan Air Force Base in Taipei, which the presidential airplane utilizes, is being tried separately.
Cheng has pled guilty to all charges and was released on bail as he awaits sentencing.
The first trial of a case is typically held at a district court, but the High Court claimed authority over Liu Sheng-shu’s case due to the possibility of classified information being disclosed in court.
In January, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office took Liu Sheng-shu and three other officers into custody and placed them in pre-trial detention, while three others were granted bail.
Prosecutors closed the investigation three months later and moved the case to trial.
Kung pled guilty and Cheng’s case was separated at about that time.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS