The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday sentenced former army colonel Hsiang Te-en (向德恩) to seven-and-a-half years in jail and ordered him to repay NT$560,000 that he received in bribes from Chinese sources to work as a spy.
Hsiang in November last year was accused of signing a document of surrender with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), posing with the document in military attire and pledging assistance, to the best of his abilities, in the event of an invasion.
Hsiang headed the Kaohsiung-based Army Infantry Training Command’s Operations Research and Development Division.
Photo: Copied by Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
According to the ruling, Hsiang, 49, was recruited by Shao Wei-chiang (邵維強) to work as a Chinese spy.
Hsiang received NT$40,000 a month from Shao, totaling NT$560,000 over 14 months, the court said.
Hsiang could not be charged with contravening Article 2 of the National Security Act (國家安全法) or treason under the Criminal Code, because evidence had been removed from the cellphones of those who were implicated, it said.
The ruling, which also includes disenfranchisement for four years, can be appealed.
Shao, the owner of a local travel agency, in 2005 learned that his firm employed a woman surnamed Yu (尤), whose then-husband, Hsiang, was in the military.
Shao began to make overtures to Hsiang, the ruling said.
Yu and Hsiang divorced in June 2018.
The ruling said that Shao treated Hsiang to banquets and gifts, and told him that he was a distant relative of late Chinese People’s Liberation Army general Xiang Shouzhi (向守志).
In January 2020, Hsiang donned his military uniform and made a video, stating: “I, Hsiang Te-en, here do pledge that I support the peaceful unification of both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait. I will serve the motherland and the organization to the best of my abilities while remaining in my current position to ensure the holy and honorable mission of ushering in peaceful reunification as early as possible,” the ruling said.
Shao has been charged with contravening the National Security Act and the Banking Act (銀行法), and with corruption under the Criminal Code.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS