Academics and lawmakers on Tuesday said the government should consider reinstating military trials during peacetime or amending laws to better deter military espionage after an army colonel was indicted for working for China.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday charged former army colonel Hsiang Te-en (向德恩) with corruption, accusing him of pledging allegiance to China and receiving payment from Chinese operatives to work as a spy, but said there was insufficient evidence to charge him with espionage.
Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the Institute of National Defense and Security Research, said that military espionage poses a serious threat to national security.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The Code of Court Martial Procedure (軍事審判法) only applies to active military personnel who commit crimes under the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法) during wartime. During peacetime, military personnel are tried in civilian courts and serve sentences in civilian prisons.
Su urged the government to thoroughly review the reinstatement of military trials or at least invite military prosecutors to participate in espionage investigations.
Reinstating military trials during peacetime for active personnel would improve troop discipline and combat readiness, and deter espionage, he said.
Hsiang, a 49-year-old former head of the Kaohsiung-based Army Infantry Training Command’s Operations Research and Development Division, allegedly received NT$40,000 per month from Oct. 31, 2019, to January to work as a spy, prosecutors said.
Former reporter Shao Wei-chiang (邵維強) allegedly paid Hsiang NT$560,000 for information, they said.
At Shao’s direction, Hsiang in January 2020 posed for a photograph wearing his military uniform while holding a handwritten note pledging his allegiance to China, prosecutors said.
The note read: “I, Hsiang Te-en, hereby pledge to support cross-strait peaceful unification. I will do my best at my current post to fulfill the glorious task of pushing for peaceful unification for the motherland.”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said the case exposed major negligence in the military’s internal espionage prevention and detection system.
While Lo did not explicitly call for the resumption of military trials, he did say that laws should be updated to encourage loyalty in the military and ensure that spies could be charged with treason and face tougher penalties.
On Nov. 9, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) told legislators in a question-and-answer session that he “personally agreed” with reinstating military trials, but said it was up to legislators to do so.
At the session, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Sz-Huai (吳斯懷) said that Ministry of National Defense data showed that about 29 of 32 crimes committed by active-duty military personnel brought to trial over the past five years did not result in convictions by civilian courts.
Wu said that this has led to a decline in discipline, morale and leadership in the military.
The ministry late on Tuesday said that Hsiang had been suspended from duty, pending his trial.
Hsiang has been held in custody since his arrest on Sept. 26.
Shao, who is also a retired army lieutenant, had been a Kinmen correspondent for Taipei-based China Television from 1993 to July 2019.
On Oct. 7, Kinmen County prosecutors indicted Shao for bribery and contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). He is being held in Kinmen.
The Code of Court Martial Procedure was amended to end military trials of officers in peacetime following the death of Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) in July 2013.
Hung was found dead while in detention in the army’s 269th Mechanized Infantry Brigade barracks under suspicious circumstances.
The military investigation led to the arrest and questioning of several officials. A court subsequently found 13 officials guilty of various charges and handed down prison sentences of up to eight months.
The sentences were seen as too lenient, leading for calls that such cases be tried in civilian courts.
Hung’s death sparked the resignation of then-minister of national defense Kao Hua-chu (高華柱), an apology from then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and public protests, followed by subsequent reforms that sought more transparency from the armed forces.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as