Taipei, March 11 (IANS) Taiwan is set to introduce a bill to make tougher laws for spies and punish active military personnel who pledge loyalty to an enemy and damage military interests, local media reported.
The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defence on Monday said that under the proposed bill, active military personnel who pledge loyalty to an enemy through speech, actions, words, pictures, digital records, or other methods sufficiently to harm military interests would face a prison sentence of one to seven years.
The ministry stated that in the past few years, the military has collaborated with national security agencies to crack down on Chinese spying, which showed that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) espionage and spying activities are becoming more rampant, as reported by leading Taiwanese daily, Taipei Times.
Taiwan has witnessed a surge in Chinese espionage activities. In January, Taiwan’s National Security Bureau (NSB) published an analysis of China’s infiltration tactics, highlighting Beijing’s attempts to use military veterans to recruit active service members.
The short report, ‘Analysis on the Infiltration Tactics Concerning China’s Espionage Cases,’ noted that the number of individuals in Taiwan prosecuted for Chinese espionage increased significantly in recent years, from 16 in 2021 to 64 in 2024.
According to the NSB, targets of Chinese infiltration attempts included military units, government agencies, and local associations. It further stated that spies in Taiwan on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organisations and obtaining sensitive information from the country’s government.
Last week, the Supreme Court of Taiwan upheld jail sentences handed to two former Air Force officers for passing military intelligence to China.
The two officers, identified by their last names, Yeh and Su, served in the 501st and 301st battalions of the Air Defence and Missile Command of Taiwan.
Yeh was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison, while Su received a five-year and eight-month sentence.
In February 2025, the Supreme Court of Taiwan upheld the decision of the Taiwan High Court to hand eight people, including several active-duty military officers, sentences ranging from 18 months to 13 years for collecting intelligence for China.
–IANS
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