Judicial authorities in Taoyuan have arrested China-based businessman Lin Wei-lin (林偉琳) on allegations of spying for Beijing, after searching his residence on Thursday, they said.
Lin, 39, is accused of helping China to develop a spy network and trying to recruit Taiwanese intelligence officials to access sensitive national security materials, Taoyuan Deputy Chief Prosecutor Wang Yi-wen (王以文) said.
A judge approved a request by prosecutors at the bail hearing late on Thursday that Lin be placed in judicial detention and that his communications be restricted due to the risks that he might flee or corrupt evidence.
Lin is to be charged with breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), Wang said.
Taoyuan prosecutors said they put Lin under surveillance in December last year after receiving reports that he was engaged in illegal activities.
They decided to arrest him now, as he works in China and does nto often travel to his residence in Taoyuan, prosecutors said.
Investigators found that Lin completed his military service in the Marine Corps, an elite unit, and was discharged in 2000, after which he went to work for a Taiwanese electrical engineering company based in Suzhou in China’s Jiangsu Province.
Lin once headed the association for young Taiwanese entrepreneurs in Suzhou and also served as a board member for the Suzhou chapter of the All-China Youth Federation, a Chinese Communist Party organization for young people and students, prosecutors said, adding that he still serves as deputy chairman of a Taiwanese business association promoting investment in Suzhou.
Noticing his rising prominence, Chinese government officials allegedly approached Lin and successfully recruited him to work for them, paying him in return, Wang said.
Lin returned to Taiwan to attend a high school reunion, and allegedly tried to recruit a former classmate who held a job in the section responsible for national security and counterintelligence work at the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau.
Investigators said that Lin invited his former classmate for dinner and other functions, at which he allegedly inquired about the details of the classmate’s work at the bureau, repeatedly proposed to introducing his Chinese friends to him and requested information.
Lin offered the bureau officer NT$60,000 and NT$200,000 in cash, as well as luxury goods, investigators said.
The officer was not swayed and reported Lin to the authorities, who began an investigation and surveillance late last year, Wang said.
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