(Adnkronos) – Espionage for China. This is the accusation with which four soldiers were sentenced to prison terms in Taiwan, three of whom were in the unit in charge of presidential security. The other worked at the Ministry of Defense’s Information and Telecommunications Command. All now discharged, they were convicted of “selling state secrets to China,” Taiwanese media reported after the Taipei District Court sentenced them to prison terms ranging from five years and ten months to seven years.
Two of the four, according to reconstructions, were allegedly “enlisted” in late 2021. And from April 2022 the ‘transmission’ of “classified documents” to “Chinese agents” would have begun. There are no details on the information that would have been passed on to China, which considers Taiwan a “rebel province” to be “reunified.” The four were indicted in December on corruption charges and under the National Security Act for “gathering state secrets on behalf of China,” including photographing sensitive documents. For their work they would have received sums ranging from 260,000 to 660,000 Taiwanese dollars, from 7,300 to 18,500 euros.
According to recently released data from Taiwanese intelligence, 64 people were charged with espionage in favor of China on the island last year. Many more than the 48 in 2023 and the ten in 2022. In 2017, the Guardian recalls, Taiwanese authorities estimated that there were more than 5,000 Chinese ‘spies’ on the island. Recently, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te did not hesitate to call China a “hostile foreign force” and last week the Taipei government announced, among other things, increases for the military.
