Cheng Yu-chin accused of spying for Taiwanese authorities while in Czech Republic

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/10/13
By: Sylvia Teng, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Beijing’s state-run China Network Television (CCTV) ran a program Monday evening (Oct. 12) in which the authorities claimed to have detained a Taiwanese man who used his academic post in the Czech Republic to carry out espionage against China.

Cheng Yu-chin's (鄭宇欽) "confession" was aired on CCTV one day after Taiwanese local government advisor Lee Meng-chu (李孟居), in prison garb, admitted to endangering China's national security in the same program. The 43-year-old native of Kaohsiung apologized for "secessionist and separatist activities" and for having "caused harm to the Mainland."

According to CCTV and Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the Global Times, Cheng, who had been based in Czechia for some time and later taught at Charles University in Prague, was recruited by a Taiwanese envoy to work for Taiwan's intelligence services in 2004. Since then, Cheng has allegedly attempted to buy off Chinese scholars and diplomats within China as well as in other countries, such as the Czech Republic.

In addition, Cheng supposedly doctored essays on China in order to spread the claim that Chinese nationals, including overseas Chinese in the Czech Republic, are spies, CCTV said. Chen was arrested when he visited China in April 2019, but the exact location of his apprehension has not been disclosed.    [FULL  STORY]