The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday handed former Naval Education, Training and Doctrine Command General Division commander Chang Pei-ning (張培凝) nearly four years in prison for assisting Hong Kong businessman Hsieh Hsi-chang (謝錫璋) in developing an espionage cell in Taiwan in contravention of the National Security Act (國家安全法).
Starting in 1996, Hsieh and Chinese businessman Zeng Zhaofeng (曾昭峰) infiltrated Taiwan many times on orders of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) intelligence branch, seeking to befriend serving or retired military officers via banquets and sports events, the ruling said.
Hsieh introduced mineral ore and timber buyers to Chang, who later agreed to help Hsieh expand his intelligence cell, it said.
With a 15-day all-expenses-paid trip to Thailand, Chang turned colonel Ho Chung-chi (何忠枝), head of the Navy Command Headquarters Planning Division, and his wife, Chuang Hsiu-yun (莊秀雲).
However, Chang’s next few targets — which included Lieutenant General Shen Po-chih (伸伯之), then-deputy commander of the navy; a colonel surnamed Yu (于), then-National Defense University president; a colonel surnamed Huang (黃); and a major surnamed Shen (沈), then at Navy Command Headquarters — were not swayed.
Hsieh and Zeng left Taiwan in June 2019 and are wanted by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office following an investigation by the Ministry of Justice Bureau of Investigation into Hsieh’s activities, the ruling said.
Chang and Ho were arrested. Chang was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison.
Ho and his wife admitted to the charges and informed on their contacts, members of a group called the Guangdong Province Overseas Liaison Office, the ruling said, adding that the couple provided what codenames the members answered to.
Because Ho and his wife pleaded guilty and helped with the case — and because they failed to actually recruit spies for the CCP — the judges sentenced them to 10 months and three months in prison respectively.
The rulings can be appealed.
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