Prosecutors in Taiwan mentioned on Tuesday they’d charged a senior navy officer with corruption and harming state safety after they mentioned he took bribes from a Chinese language agent to behave as a spy and even signed a letter promising to give up to China.
Taiwan has lengthy battled towards what it says is a sustained espionage marketing campaign run by Beijing to undermine Taiwan’s armed forces and sow dissent within the ranks. China views Taiwan as a “sacred” a part of its territory and has by no means renounced using drive to deliver the island underneath its management.
The prosecutors’ workplace in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung metropolis mentioned they had been searching for a 12-year sentence for a military colonel who had over the past 4 years obtained T$560,000 (about $18,000) in bribes from a Chinese language agent who was additionally a retired Taiwanese officer.
The retired officer persuaded the colonel, who had been considering of leaving the armed forces, to remain in service so he might steadily stand up the ranks and act as a spy, it mentioned.
The colonel signed a letter to vow that he would give up within the occasion of struggle with China, the workplace added.
The prosecutors recognized the colonel as Hsiang Te-en.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Taiwan’s Protection Ministry mentioned that the officer was suspected of violating nationwide safety and anti-corruption legal guidelines and that it might proceed to cooperate with the investigation.
“This case highlights that the Chinese language communists have turn out to be a critical menace towards us relating to infiltrating, recruitment, assortment of intelligence and theft of secrets and techniques,” the ministry mentioned.
The ministry will proceed to strengthen counter-intelligence training for officers and troopers and deepen safety investigations, it added.
