Taiwan court sentences ex-army major for selling state secrets to China

Retired Army Major Lee Hai-peng has been handed a 12-year prison sentence by the Taiwan High Court for selling state secrets to China, a significantly harsher penalty than the one he received in the same case last year.

His sons, former Captain Lee Yu-sheng and former Sergeant Lee Yu-ching, were also found guilty of conspiring with him. Lee Yu-sheng was sentenced to two years and one month, while Lee Yu-ching received a 10-year and six-month sentence, according to the court's ruling on Tuesday.

Former Air Force Major Lee Wen-sheng has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for assisting enemy spies. Like Lee Hai-peng, the sentences for Lee Yu-ching and Lee Wen-sheng are significantly longer than the ones handed down in the previous ruling, CNA news reported.

All of the verdicts remain subject to appeal. In August 2024, the High Court sentenced Lee Hai-peng to four years in prison for disclosing classified military information he acquired through his position and for gathering national classified data.

After the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Taiwan High Court, Lee Hai-peng was found guilty on three counts under the Classified National Security Information Protection Act, including transmitting classified national security information to China, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. According to the report according to the high court's ruling, Lee Hai-peng, now in his 70s, began facilitating meetings between Taiwanese and Chinese officials after his retirement in 1990, during which he was recruited by China to gather intelligence.

In 2008, Lee Hai-peng enlisted Lee Wen-sheng, an Air Force officer stationed in Hualien, to collect classified and confidential information. According to the court, Lee Hai-peng informed Lee Wen-sheng that he was assisting China in gathering military intelligence, and Lee Wen-sheng agreed to take part in exchange for financial compensation.

The court stated that Lee Wen-sheng provided hard or digital copies of "confidential" or "classified" documents he encountered in his role and gave them to Lee Hai-peng. These materials were subsequently handed over to Chinese intelligence officials in exchange for $10,000 in cash and a paid trip to South Korea.

In May 2010, as Lee Wen-sheng was nearing retirement, Lee Hai-peng began asking Lee Yu-sheng and Lee Yu-ching to disclose classified information. The court found that Lee Yu-ching gathered classified data, took it off the base, converted it into digital files, and handed it over to his father. In 2012, Lee Hai-peng and his wife, along with Lee Yu-ching and his girlfriend, were given an all-expenses-paid trip to Malaysia, where they met with Chinese officials, according to the court.

The court highlighted that Lee Yu-ching was aware his father was a Chinese spy but continued to gather intelligence for him after returning to Taiwan. Initially, Lee Wen-sheng was sentenced to three years and two months in prison by the Taiwan High Court for the lesser charge under the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces for delivering classified military information he had obtained through his position.

Lee Yu-sheng and Lee Yu-ching were initially sentenced to two years and two months and two years and four months, respectively, for the same charge as Lee Wen-sheng. However, in the retrial, Lee Yu-sheng was found guilty of the same charge, with his sentence reduced by one month, while Lee Yu-ching was convicted of the more serious offense of aiding enemy spies and received a significantly harsher sentence.