A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment.
Photo: Liu Yung-yun, Taipei Times
Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November 2023, when Chen was having financial difficulties, the indictment said.
Wang allegedly promised financial compensation in exchange for sensitive military information, it added.
Lee on Jan. 4, 2024, began training to become an officer, during which he had possession of classified course materials not publicly released by the military, it said.
After learning that Lee was still serving in the military, Chen met him on March 16, 2024, and told Lee that he was in contact with a Chinese operative and that Lee could earn money by photographing military materials, the indictment said.
Chen then introduced Lee to Wang over the messaging app WeChat, it said.
Wang allegedly offered to pay Lee twice his monthly salary, plus bonuses, for copying and handing over sensitive military information, but Lee declined the offer, it said.
Chen later again approached Lee for help, telling Lee he needed the course materials to receive payment from Wang, as Chen had debts to settle, and the two agreed to meet again on April 7, the indictment said.
At about 8pm that night, Chen and Lee met in a parking lot in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), where Chen used his mobile phone to photograph and collect the classified documents before sending the images to Wang, it said.
Chen on April 13 received US$2,500 in cryptocurrency from Wang, which he converted into NT$79,440 in cash, the indictment said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
RSS