Suspected Chinese spy Liao Hsien-ping (廖憲平), a former Taiwanese spy stationed in the Philippines, was arrested by special agents from the Bureau of Investigation late Tuesday night and detained after a Taoyuan court approved a request by prosecutors. \nA bureau press release said that Liao, 60, had served as a special agent for the Military Intelligence Agency since graduation. \nHe was stationed in Manila until he was forced to retire because of involvement in fraud. He was convicted over the matter in 1995. After serving two years in a Philippine jail, Chinese security agents bailed him out and hired him as an agent. He went to Fujian Province for training, then moved back to Taiwan in 2000. \n"He has been working as a cab driver, but he was actually collecting information for the Chinese authorities," a press release read. "His main job was to collect and tabulate information on Falun Gong members and their families in Taiwan." \nThe bureau's investigation showed that many Falun Gong members could not return to or enter China, Hong Kong or Macau because local authorities had received information from Liao and had placed them on a list of people to be refused entry. \nThe press release also mentioned that pro-Taiwan Hong Kong Legislator Liu Hui-ching (劉慧卿) was targeted by China because of Liao's work. \nIn addition to collecting information on his own accord, bureau agents said they discovered that two of Liao's former colleagues, retired Colonel Chang Tzu-hsin (張祖馨), and an employee at the National Police Agency's Immigration Office, Sung Wan-ling (宋婉玲), were involved in gathering information. \nTaoyuan prosecutors also summoned them, with Chang and Sung admitting to helping Liao with his work. But prosecutors decided to release them after questioning. \nAccording to the Taoyuan District Prosecutor's Office, the case was not serious enough to constitute a threat to the national security, but did qualify as an offense under the Criminal Code. \nProsecutors said Liao had received at least NT$1.7 million from the Chinese authorities for his information.
A video allegedly featuring retired general Kao An-kuo (高安國) calling on Taiwanese military officers to surrender to China and overthrow the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has sparked outrage and calls for him to be charged with treason. The video, titled “A message to Taiwanese military officers,” allegedly shows Kao saying: “I call on commanding officers of our military troops to stand up for Chinese nationalism, to take up this duty under heaven’s mandate to save Taiwanese from oppression and terrible suffering.” Dressed in military fatigues and a beret, the lieutenant general called on officers to overthrow the “fraudulent DPP regime,”
HASTY REVIEW CLAIMS: Medigen’s vaccine, which is to start phase 3 clinical trials later this year, should not have received emergency use authorization, Hau said Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) is to appeal the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authorization of Medigen Vaccine Biologics’ COVID-19 vaccine, he said yesterday. The administration on July 19 granted Medigen emergency use authorization, even though the drugmaker had not yet completed phase 3 clinical trials. The government should not authorize the use of a vaccine that has not completed phase 3 trials, Hau said in Taipei on the sidelines of an event to distribute boxed meals with former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康). Hau said the government had politicized
WORTH SOLVING: As 70% of water for public use comes from reservoirs, eutrophication is increasingly placing a strain on water filtration systems, an NTU professor said Most of the 26 reservoirs on Taiwan’s outlying islands are affected by eutrophication, while five out of the 20 category-one reservoirs on Taiwan proper are also affected by eutrophication, an Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) report showed. Eutrophication is caused by an excess of nutrients, which results in a buildup of plant life that prevents light and oxygen from entering the water. In April, the Mingde (明德), Baihe (白河), Jingmian (鏡面), Chengcing Lake (澄清湖) and Fengshan (鳳山) reservoirs were the five category-one reservoirs with the most eutrophication, the report said. The Fengshan reservoir scored 70 on Carlson’s trophic state index, the highest out of
NEW NUMBERS: No deaths were reported yesterday, but there were 12 local cases and two imported cases — people who had returned from Thailand and the US The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that COVID-19 restrictions are expected to remain in place after Monday next week, as it reported 12 local infections and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the 12 local cases are 10 men and two women aged 10 to 80 who began experiencing symptoms between Thursday and Saturday. Six tested positive during isolation or upon ending it, he said, adding that the sources of infection have been identified in nine cases, while three remain unclear and would be investigated. Taoyuan reported five cases, all family
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