Seven retired military personnel have been charged for selling state secrets to China, including photographs of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) headquarters and military bases, the Taichung branch of the High Prosecutors’ Office said today.
The case originated in Miaoli County in 2022 with an investigation into county councilor candidate Huang Kuei-kun (黃桂坤) for allegedly accepting Chinese funds to run for office in contravention of the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), the branch said.
Prosecutors traced the case back to the minor political party the Rehabilitation Alliance and transferred it to the High Prosecutors’ Office.
Photo: Reuters
Prosecutors said they found that 62-year-old retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義) was receiving funds from China to recruit retired army personnel to develop organizations in Taiwan, including the Rehabilitation Alliance.
Huang was one of the six men Chu recruited for the group, they said.
Chu had extensive business dealings in China following his retirement and was familiar with their intelligence agencies starting in 2019, prosecutors said.
The Rehabilitation Alliance, which was founded in 2023, ran three candidates for the Legislative Yuan elections, none of whom won.
To support these campaigns, Chu received NT$2 million (US$60,762) through WeChat and NT$670,000 through underground sources to support the campaigns, prosecutors said.
Chu and his group also allegedly took photos of four military bases and the AIT, as well as drew coordinate maps of their locations and shared the information via WeChat and other methods, prosecutors said.
When questioned, the suspects said that the funds were for authenticating Chinese antiques on behalf of friends in China, and that the friends also asked for photos of the bases, although they did not know why, prosecutors said.
Following the investigation, formal charges under the National Security Act (國家安全法) and Anti-Infiltration Act were filed against Chu and six others, who have all been detained since August last year, the branch said.
The case is to be heard by the High Court’s Taichung branch.
The National Security Act says that no individual can develop or fund an organization on behalf of outside countries, nor can they spy on their behalf.
The penalty for these actions is a prison term of up to seven years and an additional fine of NT$50 million to NT$100 million.
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