Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Prosecutors are filing an appeal against the four-year prison sentence for Chinese intelligence officer Zhen Xiaojiang and seven other verdicts for the Taiwanese he recruited, reports said Tuesday.

Zhen was a rare case of a Chinese national being arrested in Taiwan for spying, after he spent years recruiting local officers and paying them with holidays in Southeast Asia during which they were able to pass on information to other Chinese intelligence officials, prosecutors said.

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office said the Taipei District Court had only convicted Zhen for one crime, but instead he should face 11 counts because he had recruited 11 spies, reports said.

From 2005 to 2013, the Chinese spy had approached several serving and retired military officers and succeeded in obtaining information about Taiwan’s French-built Mirage 2000 fighter jets and the Leshan radar base in Hsinchu County. In return for the secrets, the Taiwanese officers received free trips to Southeast Asian countries where they met with Chinese counterparts, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]