Ten former and current military officers were yesterday indicted on charges of spying for China, including two who allegedly filmed themselves pledging loyalty to Beijing.
The High Prosecutors’ Office requested life imprisonment for the suspects in light of the severity of the crime.
The 10 active-duty and retired officers included members of the 601st Brigade of the Aviation Special Forces comprising attack helicopter squadrons and elite combat units in charge of defending northern Taiwan, including Taipei.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The other suspects came from Huadong Defense Command, in charge of defending the eastern coast; Kinmen Defense Command, in charge of defending Kinmen and Matsu; and one from the army’s Chemicals, Biohazards and Radiation Training Center based in Taoyuan tasked with defense against chemical and biological warfare.
Prosecutors charged them with treason in accordance with a provision in the Criminal Code, which was amended in May, which states that “any person colluding with a foreign state or its agent” with the intent to start a war against the nation may be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.
Evidence showed that two active-duty officers, surnamed Wu (吳) and Lu (陸), were paid to film videos declaring their willingness to surrender to Chinese People’s Liberation Army forces, the indictment read.
“Active-duty soldiers pledging their allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party is an extremely vicious act,” it said.
Three of the suspects were accused of recruiting active-duty servicepeople to collect military information to “develop a network for China,” the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement.
The four officers that they enlisted were charged with handing over “multiple military secrets” to Beijing in exchange for money, it said without elaborating.
The 10th suspect was accused of stealing military secrets from a safe at his workplace.
“These 10 suspects are in active service or retired military officers, and receive salaries or pensions from the government. They have or had held positions in the armed forces, and were educated, trained and cultivated for many years by the government, and tasked with the duty of defending the nation,” the indictment said.
“Therefore the suspects are well-aware that loyalty to the nation is the most fundamental obligation of a soldier. However, they chose to betray the nation, broke their oath to protect state secrets and breached their duties as soldiers to defend the homeland,” it added.
“Due to personal greed, they betrayed the nation and its people by leaking and passing on numerous documents and materials pertaining to military and state secrets, which seriously harmed national security. It is painful to point out how these suspects betrayed their fellow soldiers in active duty by committing treason. They should therefore receive the severest punishment under the law,” it said.
Yesterday’s indictment was the latest in a recent string of espionage cases in the nation.
Last month, a retired air force colonel was sentenced to 20 years in prison for spying for Beijing and handing over confidential national security information.
In August, a father and son duo were indicted for recruiting two soldiers who allegedly helped them gather information for China about Taiwan’s Han Kuang military exercises.
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA