A top-ranking retired navy officer has been found guilty of passing on classified military material to China and recruiting junior officers to do the same.
The High Court’s Kaohsiung Branch early this week sentenced Ko Cheng-sheng (柯政盛), a retired vice admiral, to 14 months in prison for violating the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法).
Ko, who was the deputy commander of the Republic of China (ROC) Naval Fleet before retiring in 2003, is one of the highest-ranked retired military officers caught spying for China to date.
Last year, Chen Chu-fan (陳築藩), a retired lieutenant-general and deputy commander of the Military Police Command with the equivalent military rank as Ko, was also convicted of espionage.
Ko, 70, had ties with a Taiwanese businessman with Australian citizenship, Shen Ping-kang (沈秉康), 75.
According to prosecutors, Shen had developed good contacts within Chinese government circles from business dealings over the years, including with officials from the People’s Liberation Army General Political Department and the “Shanghai City No. 7 Office,” said to be a branch of the Chinese intelligence apparatus.
In 1998, after learning that Shen and Ko were close friends, Chinese authorities began trying to recruit both men, with a special focus on Ko, a rear admiral at the time, knowing he had access to top-level classified material.
Investigations by prosecutors showed that Shen arranged several all-expenses-paid trips to Australia for Ko and his family, who then traveled to Beijing and other cities in China, between 1998 and 2007.
On these trips, Ko also met up with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, with whom he agreed to cooperate.
Meanwhile, Ko had taken up the post of deputy commander of the ROC Naval Fleet, and was further promoted to vice admiral in 2000.
According to prosecutors, Ko passed on classified information to Chinese officials and then tried to recruit naval officers under his charge for the purpose of organizing an internal network to transfer classified information.
A navy source said Ko would have caused serious damage to national security if he had given all he knew to China, especially the nation’s military mobilization and operational tactics, known as the “Gu An Combat Plan” (固安作戰計畫), for the defense of Taiwan and Penghu in the event of war.
“If Ko had passed on that information, then the ‘Gu An Combat Plan’ is only fit for the rubbish pile. Our battleships would be sitting ducks; once they head out of the ports, they would be targets of attack for Chinese forces,” according to the source, who declined to be named.
However, other military men said the plans were revised over the years, so there was only limited damage done from the leaks by Ko.
Investigators found that Ko’s friends knew he had visited China numerous times since retirement and was fond of boasting that he was “conducting important business on behalf of the government.”
Shen was also convicted and given a 12-month sentence.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to