TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Fukang Alliance Party Chair Chu Hung-yi (屈宏義) was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for spying on China’s behalf and plotting armed intervention.

Appeals are still possible against the verdict handed down by the Taiwan High Court’s Taichung branch, the Liberty Times reported. Six other members of the spy ring received prison terms ranging from three years and six months to eight years and six months.

Chu, 62, is a retired Army officer who later ran a business in China. Investigators found he had accepted funding from a Chinese intelligence agent to recruit serving and retired military officers for a spy ring. Unlike in other similar cases, he also sought to form an armed group to welcome a 100,000-strong Chinese invasion force and assassinate Taiwan independence supporters.

Prosecutors said Chu sent out a message seeking volunteers for the mission, but received no replies. Because the idea was not carried out any further, he was not prosecuted for it.

The court found Chu guilty of violating the National Security Act by developing an organization that spied for China. Members of the group took photos of the American Institute in Taiwan, a radar base in Alishan, a beach, and a military base in Pingtung, and sent the images with GPS coordinates to China, per CNA.

Chu also received NT$2 million (US$68,000) from China to field a candidate in the 2024 legislative elections, but the Fukang Alliance Party failed to win a seat.