Retired military police officer indicted for spying

A retired military police officer who was on the security detail of former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was yesterday indicted for spying for China, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said.

The office said it had charged Major Wang Hung-ju (王鴻儒), 46, with violating the National Security Act (國家安全法) after he was found to be involved in espionage.

Former vice president Annette Lu, center, shakes hands with a bystander at an event organized by the Tainan Bureau of Social Affairs at the National Tainan Living Art Center yesterday.

Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times

Wang had been assigned by the National Security Bureau (NSB) as one of Lu’s bodyguards during the 2000 presidential campaign. After his retirement from the Special Service Command Center in 2003, he began a business career in China.

In March, he was arrested at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport before flying to China.

He had been suspected of espionage by the NSB and the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau for a long period of time before his arrest in March, when he was detained incommunicado.

Wang made contact with Chinese officials, for whom he agreed to collect confidential information from his former colleagues, prosecutors said.

He was exposed when many of the Taiwanese he contacted refused to offer any information to him, they said.

Wang during questioning denied that he had leaked national secrets, saying that “at the rank of major, my access to national secrets was limited,” they said.

However, Wang did confess that he does not care much for law and order, they said.

Wang is the second person with a military background to be charged with spying this week, following Major General Hsieh Chia-kang (謝嘉康).

Hsieh, who is deputy commander of the Matsu Defense Command, was summoned for questioning by prosecutors on Tuesday for alleged national security breaches.

The same day, his residence in Pingtung was searched and the case was turned over to the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office in Kaohsiung for further investigation.

He was later released on bail of NT$100,000 and barred from leaving the country.

Hsieh’s case drew concern from the US over possible leaks of information about US-made missile systems.

Before being transferred to the Matsu Defense Command in January, Hsieh was the head of the Air Defense Missile Command, a post he took up in 2015.