The Taipei District Court on Tuesday sentenced Lee Wan-ping (李宛平) to one year in prison for targeting military, legislative and other government officials to obtain classified information as part of China’s espionage efforts.
The court found her guilty of forgery as well as contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法).
The other suspect in the case, Fu Wen-chi (傅文齊), had jumped NT$150,000 bail and fled Taiwan to avoid prosecution, the court said.
Fu has worked as an aide at legislative offices and was connected to KMT lawmakers, an investigation by prosecutors found. Fu’s bail guarantor was a man who worked for KMT Legislator Liao Wan-ju (廖婉汝).
Over the past decade, Fu and Lee arranged get-togethers for lawmakers and their aides during trips to China to meet with Chinese intelligence officers, they said.
An investigation has found that the trips included then-KMT legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) and his aides.
Fu and Lee traveled to China in 2002 to enroll in degree programs at Jinan University in Guangzhou, where they were targeted by provincial-level officials from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), investigators found.
They also drew the attention of military and intelligence agencies, including Chinese officers surnamed Wu (吳), Ji (紀) and Tang (唐), they found.
Their Chinese handlers asked the duo to collect information on the Taiwanese military’s combat readiness and troop deployment plans, they said.
The duo was also instructed to recruit active or retired high-level military officials, politicians, legislators and their aides, investigators said.
In Taiwan, the duo headed the university’s alumni association office, with Fu serving as the secretary-general and Lee as the executive director.
The association received funding from China and came under the direct control of the TAO’s branch in Guangdong Province.
Witness testimony and communication records showed that the duo made contact with Taiwanese military personnel, politicians, and lawmakers and their aides.
They tried to recruit them by offering money to obtain classified materials, and arranged junket trips to China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and South Korea, where meetings were set up with Chinese intelligence officers, investigators said.
Their targets included a retired army general, and two colonels surnamed Huang (黃) and Chang (張), but some of them refused to cooperate and alerted the authorities, leading judicial authorities to launch a probe in 2017.
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