Eight Military Personnel Found Guilty of Espionage
A Taiwanese high court has sentenced eight military personnel to between eight and 13 years after they were found guilty of spying for China. Each person will serve an average of seven years in prison. Officials say they are still on the hunt for the main suspect, a retired military officer.
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00:00Taiwan's high court has sentenced eight current and former military personnel for breaking
00:06Taiwan's national security law by spying for China.
00:10China first reached out to the retired military personnel, who then leveraged their contacts
00:14and connections to recruit active-duty members of the military to carry out espionage.
00:20That includes things like leaking information to China and getting other soldiers to pledge
00:25their allegiance to China's military.
00:28This all happened under an elaborate spy network in which China paid the defectors with cryptocurrency.
00:35And according to officials, the main suspect in the case, a retired military officer surnamed
00:40Chen, is still on the run.
00:43China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out taking the country by
00:48force.
00:49Part of China's strategy is infiltrating Taiwan's defense networks.
00:54That includes attempts to infiltrate Taiwan's military.
00:57So cases like these are quite common in Taiwan.
01:01But in this case, the sentences handed down on Thursday are uncharacteristically harsh.
01:06On average, each of the charged received seven years in prison, with one person receiving
01:1113 years in prison.
01:13That's compared to a case two months ago when Taiwan's Supreme Court sentenced a former
01:18colonel and general, two years each, for recruiting intelligence assets on behalf of China.
01:26Those two were also fined for their offenses as well.
01:29Now this may not be the last we've heard of this case, as the court's decision can still
01:34be appealed.
01:35Yixin Pan, Devin Tsai, and Leslie Liao for Taiwan Plus.