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Bloomberg
Taiwan detained three active-duty officers and a retired Air Force officer suspected of
spying for China, the Central News Agency (CNA) in Taipei reported, a case that hints at the extent of Beijing’s snooping on its much smaller neighbour.
The former officer left
the military in 2013 and started doing business in China, where he was recruited to build an espionage ring, the semi-official media outlet said, without saying where it got the information.
Prosecutors suspect he recruited six officers and was paid between NT$200,000 ($6,510) and NT$700,000 via a shell company, CNA reported. He and three officers serving in the Air Force and Navy were detained in the southern city of Kaohsiung, and three other active officers were freed on bail.
Taiwan has struggled to weed out espionage within its armed forces by China, which has vastly more resources.
The US — Taiwan’s biggest military backer — has long been worried about the self-ruled island’s ability to keep tech and other secrets out of Beijing’s hands.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in November that China’s spying posed a “serious threat.†Those comments came as authorities launched an investigation into an infantry officer for allegedly taking NT$40,000 a month from China to gather intelligence and surrender if a war ever erupted, CNA earlier reported.