A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday.
The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement.
The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said.
Photo: screen grab from Kao An-kuo’s Facebook page
Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement said.
After retiring from the army, Kao and another defendant used Chinese funds to form “an armed organization” — the “Republic of China Taiwan Military Government” — that would act as an “internal collaborator” if China attacked Taiwan, it said.
They also engaged in “scouting, contacting, wooing and absorbing retired and active service members,” putting national security in a “dangerous state,” it added.
Prosecutors have sought a minimum jail term of 10 years for Kao, saying that he failed his “high duty of loyalty to the country as a retired lieutenant general deputy commander for the sake of personal gain.”
The other defendants face up to eight years in jail, prosecutors said.
The statement did not say how much money Kao or the others received, but it has previously reported that the six defendants collectively received more than NT$9.62 million (US$293,525) in funding from China.
There has been a series of spying cases in Taiwan, as China maintains military and political pressure on Taipei.
The National Security Bureau said in a recent report that the number of people prosecuted for spying for Beijing has “increased significantly,” from 10 in 2022 to 64 last year.
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