A former Ministry of Culture civil servant accused of supplying information on Tibetans in Taiwan to the Chinese government has been indicted on national security charges, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Chen Temen Poyen is accused of secretly recording conversations with colleagues at the ministry’s Mongolian and Tibetan Cultural Center, which he then gave to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Chen used a recording device disguised as a pen given to him in October 2019 by Fang Hsiang (方翔), a Taiwanese with business interests in China’s Hainan Province who was recruited by Beijing to spy on Tibetans in Taiwan, prosecutors said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Culture
Fang and his wife, Jan Zhu (冉菊), who have also been indicted, recruited Chen at the direction of Chinese Ministry of State Security official Hou Zheng (侯正), they said, adding that Hou, who first met Fang and Jan in 2017, provided the couple with funds as well as free travel to Hainan.
Prosecutors added that they had indicted two other people allegedly recruited by Fan and Jan — former detective agency boss Ting Chao-chung (丁肇寵) and suspected gang member Tao Tai-pao (陶台寶).
In April 2017, Fang invited Chen to travel to Hainan to meet with Hou, prosecutors said.
Fang has been detained since August as part of an investigation into breaches of the National Security Act (國家安全法), they said.
The ministry said it had suspended Chen from his position and referred his case to the Disciplinary Court.
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