Army private on frontline Dongyin indicted for selling classified combat files to Chinese police handler

A 27-year-old private serving with the Taiwanese army's Dongyin Area Command has been indicted on charges of selling classified military files to a man sent by a public security bureau in mainland China, the Taiwan Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office said on Wednesday, 7 October.

Prosecutors said the soldier, identified only by the surname Chou, used his mobile phone to photograph national security material held on an official computer and handed the images over in return for cash, gold, bank transfers and cryptocurrency worth more than NT$790,000 in total. The case will be heard under Taiwan's citizen judge system.

More than 20 files, priced one by one

According to the prosecutors' statement, Chou met the handler, a man surnamed Chen who had been dispatched by the security division of a public security bureau in an unnamed Chinese province or city, in November 2024. Chou is accused of passing him material from that point on in exchange for payment.

Media reports said the leaked material covered more than 20 items on operations and military training, and that the handler paid between NT$3,000 and NT$40,000 per item depending on its classification level.

Chou is said to have been short of money when he went looking for a loan online. The United Daily News said he found a lender offering credit to military personnel and was introduced to Chen through that loan, and that Chen then urged him to use his post as an intelligence staff officer to photograph sensitive files. Mirror News reported that the material came from the unit's S2 intelligence section and was sent to public security officials in Guangdong province, while the United Daily News named the handler's employer as the Zhuhai city public security bureau.

Family bank accounts used to hide payments

To break the money trail, prosecutors said, Chou borrowed bank accounts belonging to his mother and to his Vietnamese fiancee so that Chen could send money through them, moving the proceeds in a roundabout way to hide where they came from and where they went. The fiancee is being investigated separately on suspicion of helping to launder the money.

Mirror News reported that investigators also suspect the fiancee may have been placed in Chou's life by the Chinese side. Prosecutors have not made that claim in their statement.

Military counter-intelligence uncovered the case

The investigation was led by prosecutors Kao Yung-han and Wang Chien-chung, working with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau's Taoyuan City field office, the Ministry of National Defense's Political Warfare Bureau and its Military Security Command, and the Military Police Command's New Taipei unit. Four more prosecutors were later assigned to the case.

The United Daily News said the soldier's unit counter-intelligence staff first spotted the activity and reported it to prosecutors, and that searches were carried out in the middle of this year. After the searches and witness interviews, a court approved prosecutors' request to hold Chou in detention without visitors.

He has been indicted on charges of accepting bribes in breach of duty under Taiwan's Anti-Corruption Act, leaking and delivering secrets under the Criminal Code, and money laundering under Article 19 of the Money Laundering Control Act.

Dongyin is one of the outlying Matsu islands off the coast of China's Fujian province and is held by the army's Dongyin Area Command as a frontline garrison. The case adds to a run of prosecutions of serving and former Taiwanese military personnel accused of passing information to Beijing.