Taiwan sentences 8 military officers for spying for China

The Taiwan High Court on Thursday sentenced eight Taiwanese military officers to prison for spying for China in exchange for financial benefits, Voice of America reports.

The report quoted experts as saying that the case reflects a change in China’s espionage strategy in Taiwan. The sentences range from 18 months to 13 years, making it one of Taiwan’s biggest espionage cases.

The court said the defendants were “willing to collect intelligence for China, which led to the disclosure of important secrets” and “were lured with money.”

A man named Chen Yuxin contacted and recruited the defendants at key military sites to form a spy network for China. According to VOA, Chen is believed to have fled to China and remained there.

According to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency, the defendants were also accused of planning to fly a CH-47 Chinook military helicopter into a Chinese aircraft carrier in the Taiwan Strait and shooting a video indicating they would surrender to Beijing in the event of war.

“If Taiwanese authorities had not acted in time to prevent espionage and helicopter theft of military assets such as helicopters, the consequences could have been serious,” said Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the RAND Corporation.

“It is demoralizing to read that Taiwanese soldiers are voluntarily making videos advertising their willingness to surrender to China,” he/she said.

It is noteworthy that according to Taiwanese officials, this punishment given to eight military officers is the latest in the increasing cases of espionage by China on this democratically ruled island.

Russell Hsiao, executive director of the Global Taiwan Institute and a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said the latest sentences reflect a change in strategy by Chinese intelligence agencies.

“This group of convicted agents includes a relatively younger age group compared to earlier cases, which often targeted older retired military personnel,” he/she said.

Hsiao said that while older targets in past cases were motivated by a mix of ideology coupled with financial gain, “the motivation for these recent cases appears to be primarily financial.”

he/she further stated that although the sentences handed down by the court are more severe than in previous cases, the value of the intelligence collected and provided by these agents is relatively limited, although it may be intended to send a deterrent signal to potential spies.

China claims democratic Taiwan as its territory and has stepped up military and political pressure across the Taiwan Strait in recent years. The two sides have been spying on each other for decades.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said: “This is not a foreign policy issue, but a question concerning both sides of the Taiwan Strait, which belong to the same China.”

Hsiao said espionage cases involving Taiwanese military personnel have increased over the past decade.

The Control Yuan, the oversight arm of the Taiwan government, has also confirmed this. They said that the number of espionage-related cases uncovered by Taiwan’s military security units has increased significantly in recent years, and the targets and methods of intrusion are different from before.

The Control Yuan statement said 40 espionage cases were detected from 2011 to 2023, three times the number from 2001 to 2010. A total of 113 military and civilian personnel were involved in those cases, and many “top secrets” were leaked.

“This certainly shows that Beijing intends to infiltrate Taiwan’s military and security services, so Taipei will need to remain vigilant against these efforts in the years to come,” Jack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA in an email.

A Taiwanese sergeant serving at a naval training centre was charged last month for allegedly taking photographs of confidential defence information and leaking it to Beijing.

In June, the court upheld the convictions of two retired Taiwanese air force officers for helping or attempting to help China recruit intelligence assets in Taiwan.

“These cases show that China-directed subversion and espionage remain major threats to Taiwan,” Heath said. “The biggest impact is a continued decline in public confidence and even U.S. trust in Taiwan’s government and military to control the threat of Chinese subversion and espionage.”

The Control Yuan has urged the Taiwanese government to increase its defence budget to help deter China’s espionage activities.

Taiwan’s Cabinet announced on Thursday that defense spending for 2025 will rise 7.7 percent to US$20.25 billion, VOA reports.