Four Taiwan ex-intelligence officers charged with spying for mainland China
- Prosecutors say the group including a retired major general, set up a network to collect confidential material for Beijing
- A former major general is accused of accepting cash and gifts on visits to Macau and the Chinese mainland
Four retired Taiwanese military intelligence officers – including a major general – have been indicted for spying for mainland China, prosecutors said on Saturday.
The quartet were charged with developing a spying network and collecting confidential information for Beijing, the Taipei district prosecutors’ office said.
The two sides have been spying on each other since the Nationalists fled to the island to set up a rival government in 1949, having lost the civil war to the Communists.
China claims self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as part of its territory that must eventually be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Two Taiwanese former colonels were recruited by a Chinese national security official in the southern province of Guangdong, the government lawyers said, and had introduced several colleagues to the official since 2012.
Among those allegedly introduced was the ex-major general, identified by his family name Yueh.
Yueh received cash, gifts and free excursions during multiple trips to mainland China and Macau, and worked to recruit other officers to “develop an intelligence network” for Beijing, prosecutors said.
The accused “were aware of the stand-off between our country and the Chinese Communists … but they coveted illegal gains such as the perks (offered by China) to do business there, the financial rewards and free trips,” prosecutors said in a statement.
They face charges under national security and national intelligence work laws.
Beijing has ramped up the pressure on Taipei since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, in part because she regards Taiwan as a de facto sovereign nation.
In October, a Taiwanese court sentenced a lieutenant colonel to four years in prison for spying for Beijing, as Chinese state media reported a crackdown on “hundreds” of espionage cases linked to Taiwan and arrested “a batch of Taiwanese spies and their accomplices”.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV also aired four televised “confessions” by Taiwanese nationals detained in China’s opaque judicial system.
Multiple Taiwanese nationals have disappeared into Chinese custody accused of various anti-state crimes in cases that have caused an outcry at home.