The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the sentences given to two retired air force officers who helped or attempted to help a Chinese Ministry of State Security agent recruit intelligence assets in Taiwan.
Lieutenant Colonel Wei Hsien-yi (魏先儀) was given a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to pay a penalty of NT$3 million (US$92,681). Former major general Chien Yao-tung (錢耀棟) was given a suspended 16-month prison sentence and an NT$1.5 million fine.
The court also ordered Chien and Wei to attend five and 10 classes on Taiwanese law respectively.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
The prosecutors said that Chien and Wei accepted gifts and all-expenses-paid trips to China on multiple occasions from a Hong Kong man surnamed Tse (謝) — who had told Chien and Wei he was working covertly on behalf of the Chinese government — in exchange for connecting Tse with fellow retired officers.
Chien and Wei introduced Tse to at least five high-ranking former or current officers — including Chang Che-ping (張哲平), who served as deputy minister of national defense in 2019, prosecutors said.
At the time that Chien and Wei approached Chang, the ex-minister held a high-ranking position in the air force combatant command.
Tse, posing as a businessman, was working for a front organization set up by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission to gather intelligence about Taiwan’s military and politics, and conduct counterespionage, prosecutors added.
Chien and Wei continued to arrange banquets and accept gifts from Tse to arrange meetings with retired officers, until Tse, fearing his cover had been blown, abruptly ceased his visits to Taiwan in 2019, prosecutors added.
An initial ruling by the Taipei District Court found Wei guilty of espionage, and Chien guilty of attempted espionage.
The judges ruled that as retired military officers, Wei and Chien neglected their loyalty to their country.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS