Mainland, Taiwan in high-level ‘spies swap’
Print Edition
China’s mainland and Taiwan have swapped high-level convicted spies in a sign of goodwill linked to the first meeting between their leaders.
Each side released the convicts and allowed them to return home before President Xi Jinping and Taiwan’s leader Ma Ying-jeou met on November 7 in Singapore, Taiwan atuthorities said in a statement yesterday.
The mainland released two convicts and Taiwan released one, the statement said. The Taipei-based China Times newspaper said the two from Taiwan had initially been sentenced to death in the mainland.
Mainland officials also confirmed the releases, but didn’t say they were part of an exchange.
“This is in accordance with the mutual goodwill due to the Ma-Xi meeting,” Taiwan government office spokesman Charles Chen said in the statement. “Ma hopes goodwill exchanges can continue and achieve additional specific achievements.”
In Beijing, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said the two Taiwan men were released in October because they had met requirements for parole under Chinese law.
The office’s spokesman, An Fengshan, said the parole of the mainland’s Li Zhihao was an act by the Taiwan side.
The mainland first sent back the two Taiwan men, Chu Kung-hsun and Hsu Chang-kuo, on October 13, the China Times said. Both were colonels who had worked for Taiwan’s Bureau of Military Intelligence and were arrested in 2006.
The mainland held them along the Vietnamese border, said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor and military specialist at Tamkang University in Taiwan. Their rank makes them their government’s highest-level convicted spies in the mainland “in recent memory,” he said.
The two initially received death sentences for espionage, but they were later commuted to 20-year prison terms, the newspaper said.
Taiwan followed up with the release of the mainland’s Li, the statement said. Taiwan media said Li was about 70 years old. He was serving a life sentence.
“The release took place before the Ma-Xi meeting and was announced only today,” Huang said.
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