TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Four former officials from Taiwan's Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) were indicted Saturday (Feb. 20) for passing confidential intelligence to China after their retirement.

During a press conference on Saturday, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office said ex-MIB colonels Chang Chao-jan (張超然), Chou Tien-tzu (周天慈), Wang Da-wang (王大旺), and Major General Yueh Chih-chung (岳志忠) had been indicted for violating the National Intelligence Services Act. It said Chang and Chou introduced their two former colleagues to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as potential sources of classified information.

According to prosecutors, Chang and Chou invited a retired MIB agent surnamed Fu (傅) to China to meet with Chinese national security officials in 2013. They also recruited Yueh and Wang, who visited China several times between 2016 and 2018, in order to hand over intelligence to the other side.

When Chang was summoned to the prosecutor's office in October last year, he claimed that he was one of the first Taiwanese intelligence workers sent to China and the only secret agent present in Beijing during the Tiananmen massacre in 1989. Insisting on his innocence, he denied having been recruited by the CCP and said that he was actually trying to defend Taiwan, reported UDN.

If proven guilty, the four ex-MIB officials would serve a minimum prison term of seven years under the National Intelligence Services Act. The revelations came when Beijing accused several Taiwanese citizens of engaging in espionage last year, though most of the accusations were dismissed by the Taiwan government as unreliable Chinese propaganda.