Retired Taiwanese officers recruited by PLA for espionage

To steal critical intelligence regarding Republic of China Armed Forces' new weapon systems, China has recruited several retired officers through Taiwanese businesspeople working in mainland China, getting them to conduct espionage against their own country, Wendell Minnick wrote in his article for the Washington-based Defense News.

Minnick lists the officers who sold information on the E-2K Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 and PAC-2 anti-ballistic missile systems, the Hawk air defense missile system, and the Raytheon Palm IR-500 radiometric infrared camera to China over recent years.Peter Mattis, a research fellow from the Jamestown Foundation said that, contrary to popular opinion, China hires professionals, and not "amateur free-for-all sources" to steal information from Taiwan.Sources from the ROC defense ministry said that China has collected all the data needed to compromise the Po Sheng C4I upgrade program, the Anyu-4 air defense network upgrade program, the Shuan-Ji electronic warfare technology project and the Wan Chien joint standoff weapon by recruiting retired military officials. Mattis also stated that the majority of Taiwan espionage cases from 2004 to 2011 were cash-driven and not ideological.

Mattis cited the example of Vice Admiral Ko Cheng-sheng, who was recruited by a Taiwanese businessperson who introduced him to members of the United Front Work Department and "Shanghai City No. 7 Office"–widely thought to be a front for the PLA's intelligence services. Ko spied for China between 1998 and 2007, and he was later arrested and charged by the authorities for providing the PLA with the ROC military's Gu'an Combat Plan for the defense of Taiwan and Penghu.

Minnick quoted Matthis as saying, "'In addition to the Ministry of State Security and Second Department of the People's Liberation Army [PLA] General Staff Department, Taiwanese doing business in the People's Republic of China will find the PLA's General Political Department, the United Front Work Department, and any of the local level state security elements' all vying to recruit them,". Officers in active duty may also be recruited by Chinese intelligence agencies overseas.

Major General Lo Hsien-che, a Taiwan military attache assigned to Thailand between 2002 and 2005 was one of these officers recruited abroad. He was later given the sensitive post of head of the Army's telecommunications and electronic information department, where he provided China with information about Taiwan’s cryptography, signal intelligence capabilities, and intelligence sharing with the United States. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012.

Retired military officers are also responsible for recruiting active officers in the ROC Armed Forces. They receive all-expenses paid trips to China by the United Front Work Department according to a security specialist in Taiwan cited in the article. "While there, they are lionized for returning to the 'homeland' and given tours of their ancestral homes. Before they return, money is offered to help the 'motherland' in the future and 'unfortunately many take it,'" the security specialist said.