TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A Coast Guard Administration officer stationed in Kinmen passed confidential data to a smuggler who provided it to China, prosecutors said Friday.
Both men have been charged with breaking the National Security Act, the Liberty Times reported. The information they shared with China concerned radar records and details about people moving illegally from China to Taiwan.
The Coast Guard officer, named as Sergeant Chen (陳), was in charge of tracking smugglers, stowaways, and illegal migrants. From 2017 to 2021, he provided confidential data to a former elementary school classmate involved in smuggling who wanted information about his competitors, the report said.
The alleged smuggler ran a shrimp farm in China’s Fujian Province along with a local who also worked as an informant for the Chinese coast guard, according to prosecutors. They requested the court to sentence Chen to five years in prison, considering he had not been paid for his information and admitted his actions, per the Liberty Times.
The alleged smuggler should receive a four-year prison term, prosecutors said. Even though he had cooperated with the investigation and was not a civil servant, he had nevertheless still functioned as a go-between to pass on secrets from the Coast Guard sergeant to Chinese security officials, according to prosecutors.
