A group of retired navy marine survey personnel are now working for China in the South China Sea, according to defense sources.
The total number of these former naval personnel is said to be more than 10. They are all working for China on jobs related to their previous experience in the military, the sources said.
The individuals involved are apparently employed by a foreign company which has contracts with China for various projects in the South China Sea.
The sources said that while it is possible the individuals are unaware that they are doing work for China, it is more likely they are well aware of who employs them.
Those involved are said to have all retired from the navy in recent years and were marine survey specialists while in the service.
A defense official, who divulged the information to the Taipei Times, said the employees' knowledge about the marine environment in the Taiwan Strait would likely be taken advantage of by the Chinese.
"They are working in the South China Sea on projects related to their previous experience in the military. It is quite obvious they are contributing valuable knowledge to people who might turn against us sometime in the future," the official said.
The marine survey specialists may not be the only military retirees working for China.
A group of retired generals, mostly major generals, are working for a Singapore-based company, which the local intelligence community believes is a front for the Chinese military in Singapore, sources said.
They revealed that the firm's name is "Kai Li" in Chinese and said that it operates under orders from the Chinese military leadership in Beijing, primarily for the purpose of laundering money related to arms deals.
The sources said the company has hired an unidentified number of retired generals from Taiwan as consultants.
These retired generals do not have to live in Singapore, but simply travel to the city-state for occasional meetings.
The sources added that Taiwan has its own front company in Singapore, which also handles mainly arms sales-related businesses.
The two separate but related cases of retired military personnel working for China highlight the importance for the military to monitor the loyalty of servicemen after retirement.
Deputy Administrative Defense Minister Vice Admiral Kao Yang (
Kao said that was the motivation behind a recent move by the Ministry of National Defense to draft such a law on the matter, which has yet to be passed by the legislature.
"The loyalty monitoring law will be applied not only to retired servicemen but also to employees in civil companies, especially the high-tech ones," Kao said.
The National Security Bureau took a leading role in the drafting of the law, Kao said, since the matter is more related to national security than national defense.
Kao failed, however, to explain how the loyalty monitoring law would operate. The draft law, it is said, would not allow secret monitoring, such as wiretapping or undercover surveillance.
The loyalty of retired servicemen has been a hot issue in recent weeks because of a report by the local Chinese-language daily, China Times, that a retired lieutenant colonel, identified only by his surname of Liu, had defected to China and was employed as a colonel in the Chinese military.
The report has since been proved to be false as the retired lieutenant colonel in question is still in Taiwan and is working at the Veterans Affairs Commission under the Executive Yuan.
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