Daisy Chuang
July 14, 2016
Retired, active soldiers arrested for spying for China
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Six retired and active military personnel were recently arrested over accusations of working as spies for the mainland Chinese authorities, targeting confidential Taiwanese military information, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office (KDPO, 高雄地檢署) announced.
The six suspects — including a chief suspect surnamed Chuang (莊), a retired soldier — were arrested during recent raids conducted at 11 locations in Kaohsiung City, Pingtung County and Tainan City, according to the KDPO.
Following interrogations, the KDPO said the Kaohsiung District Court had approved its application to have Chuang placed in custody for alleged violations of the National Security Act (國家安全法) in the fear that he could flee to the other side of the Taiwan Strait.
Five other suspects, including an active soldier surnamed Chu (諸), retired soldiers surnamed Chen (陳), Mou (牟) and Liu (劉) were released on bail.
Another suspect, Shih (師), was released without bail.
According to prosecutors, Chuang, who was discharged from the military in 2012 and became a contractor, allegedly agreed to work as a mainland Chinese spy in April 2015 after establishing contact with mainland Chinese intelligence agents via video conferencing software.
The prosecutors said Chuang accepted bribes and free trips from mainland China in exchange for passing on confidential military intelligence information to the mainland authorities.
Between May 2015 and June 2016, Chuang successfully passed military intelligence, including R.O.C. Armed Forces drill plans, to communist China more than 20 times, prosecutors said. He allegedly earned more than NT$1 million from these transfers of information.
Chuang was also accused of recruiting the five other suspects to join his espionage ring,
The investigation team in the case said it was still conducting a probe into whether there are more active soldiers involved in the alleged spy attempts.
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