(TibetanReview.net, Jul25’24) – In what is seen as an unusual case, a court in Taiwan has tried and jailed a citizen running business in China for spying on Taiwanese and Tibetan independence activists in his home country. Fang Hsiang, in his seventies, has served as the head of a business association in Hainan for Taiwanese businessmen in China and has been jailed with his associates, reported newbloommag.net Jul 24.
The report said Fang and his associates were accused of spying on associates of former president Chen Shui-bian, Tibetans in Taiwan, and Taiwanese government officials whose work pertains to Tibetans.
Fang was stated to have been recruited as a spy after becoming acquainted with a man surnamed Hou, the apparent director of the National Security Department of Hainan province, which is part of China’s Ministry of State Security. The ministry is the principal civilian intelligence, security and secret police agency of the People’s Republic of China, responsible for foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, and the political security of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Upon returning to Taiwan, Fang recruited several individuals. This included a man surnamed Chen working in the Mongolian and Tibetan Cultural Centre in Taipei, which is part of the Ministry of Culture. At one point, Chen recorded a conversation with the director of the centre to try and gain information on Tibetan groups in Taiwan and what coordination exists between the government and such groups as pertaining to refugee policy, the report said.
Associates of Fang were stated to have been flown to China to meet with Hou at various points.
Fang was sentenced to five and a half years in jail, while Chen was sentenced to three years in jail. However, Fang’s wife, a Chinese national, was not sentenced due to lack of evidence, the report said.
Fang and his associates’ case is seen as unusual because the most common Chinese espionage cases that one hears about in Taiwan involve former Taiwanese military officers who meet with Chinese counterparts. This may involve passing along details of Taiwan’s defence, or classified information. KMT lawmakers such as Legislative Yuan defence committee co-chair Ma Wen-chun have also been accused of leaking the details of confidential defence programmes to China, such as regarding Taiwan’s domestic submarine programme, the report noted.
It is actually not hard for the Chinese government to gain intelligence on Taiwan which is, after all, a free and open democratic society. Still, it is unclear to what extent civil society groups are surveilled or monitored, except that this does occur, the report noted.