Taiwanese Military High Court has sentenced General Lo-Hsein Che to life in prison after he admitted to selling military secrets to China since 2004. From Taipei Times:
The Military High Court yesterday sentenced General Lo Hsien-che (羅賢哲), former head of communications and electronic information at army command headquarters, to life in prison for providing military secrets to China.
The court said Lo on five occasions delivered classified information to Beijing and received payments that may have totaled US$1 million since 2004.
The court said Lo could appeal the ruling with the Military Supreme Court.
Lo’s case was the nation’s biggest espionage case in 50 years.
Lo, who was arrested in January, was stationed in Thailand between 2002 and 2005. He is believed to have been recruited by Chinese agents in a “honey trap” operation in 2004 and thereafter collected military secrets and delivered classified information to Beijing.
Lo reportedly passed along secrets related to the Broad Victory communications system. From News.com:
Local media said the documents Lo handed over to China included information about the Po Sheng (Broad Victory) system – a command, control and communications network that Taiwan is buying from US defence contractor Lockheed Martin for Tw$46 billion ($A1.48 billion).
He was accused of falling for a honey trap set by a female Chinese agent while stationed in Thailand between 2002 and 2005, according to Taiwanese media reports.
Lo, now 51, reportedly started to collect secrets for her in 2004 in return for about $US1 million ($A 924,295) from China but still managed to pass repeated loyalty checks and gain promotion to Major General in 2008.
Taiwan and China have spied on each other ever since they split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Beijing still regards the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.
