Former Air Force Air Defense and Artillery Command chief of staff colonel Hsin Peng-sheng (辛澎生) was yesterday found not guilty by the High Court after previously being sentenced to six months in prison under the National Security Act (國家安全法) for attempting to “develop an organization” for China.
In the first trial at the Ciaotou District Court in Kaohsiung, prosecutors said that on the eve of Hsin’s retirement in November 1998, he used trips arranged by a friend to South Korea and Indonesia as an opportunity to meet with Zhao Ming (趙明), likely a pseudonym for an alleged member of the Liaison Department in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s General Political Department.
Hsin accepted free travel, meals and accommodation from Zhao, prosecutors said.
Photo copied by Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
After leaving the military, Hsin, aware that Zhao was interested in getting to know senior military officers, invited former subordinate Hsieh Chia-kang (謝嘉康), then a colonel in charge of the Air Force Air Defense and Missile Command’s 953rd Brigade, to travel to Phuket, Thailand, together and play golf with Zhao and others, they said.
In July 2010, Zhao arranged for Hsin’s friend Yang Yun-ting (楊昀庭), who was also convicted, to take relatives of Hsin and Hsieh — who was prohibited from traveling to China, as he was on active duty — to China for the Shanghai Expo, prosecutors said.
The trip, including meals and accommodations, was paid for by the Chinese government, which also gifted them with maotai, a Chinese liquor, they said.
The same group of people later traveled to Malaysia, where they were once again received by Chinese operatives and provided with free meals and accommodations, they added.
However, after returning to Taiwan, Hsieh’s wife felt that it was inappropriate to be meeting with Zhao and other Chinese representatives so often, and thereafter apparently refused further invitations to go abroad, prosecutors said.
While the district court was hearing his case, Hsin reportedly admitted that as he was preparing to leave the military, he hoped for an opportunity to go to China and used the trips abroad as a chance to meet Chinese friends.
However, he also told Hsieh not to “think too much” or cross any red lines, sources said.
Hsin claimed that he was simply making friends and had not collected any intelligence or recruited any senior military personnel to leak national secrets to China, they said.
After the first ruling, prosecutors felt that the penalty was too lenient and appealed.
However, the High Court ruled that accepting inducements did not constitute the development of an espionage organization.
After reviewing the Investigation Bureau’s and prosecutors’ notes, recordings and transcripts, the judges found that Hsin and Yang did not admit to accepting paid trips abroad, the sources said, adding that the notes diverged on whether they knew Zhao’s true identity.
The judges also felt that the prosecutors failed to prove that Zhao is a member of the department and that they were unable to provide payment details for the trips, the sources said.
The High Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to uphold Hsin’s and Yang’s convictions. The ruling is not final and can still be appealed.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS