Taipei holds former student from mainland on spy charges
Liaoning man who got MBA on island arrested, in first such case with mainland student
Taiwanese authorities have arrested a mainlander who studied at an island university for espionage, the first such case since it began allowing students from the mainland in 2009.
Zhou Hongxu, who graduated from Taiwan’s National Chengchi University’s MBA programme last year, was jailed on Friday morning following his arrest the previous night for violations of the National Security Law, prosecutors said.
“The Taipei District Court agreed to our request to detain him incommunicado for fear that he could flee or collude with other suspects,” a spokesman for the office said. He declined to give further details.
Wang Wen-chieh, secretary general of the university, later told reporters that Zhou, from Liaoning province, was enrolled in the university’s MBA programme in 2012 and graduated in July last year.
“Through his application, we understood that he was a member of the Communist Youth League of China,” Wang said, adding that Zhou behaved normally throughout his four years of studies.
Justice Minister Chiu Tai-shan said Zhou left Taiwan in August last year but came back this year as a businessman.