TAIPEI, Taiwan—Two Taiwanese men, including a former government official, have been indicted for endangering national security for their alleged roles in setting up a spy ring for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office announced the case on Jan. 26, involving Cheng Ming-chia and Hu Peng-nien, who were charged under the island’s National Security Act.
According to a news release from the Prosecutors’ Office, Cheng moved to Guangzhou, the capital of southern China’s Guangdong Province, in 2008 to start his own business. Beginning in 2016, he took up posts in two organizations affiliated with the Chinese regime’s United Front Work Department to promote his commercial interests, serving as head of a Guangzhou-based Taiwan youth organization and as deputy head of a Guangdong-based overseas friendship association.
In China, the United Front Work Department reports directly to the Central Committee, which is headed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The department coordinates thousands of groups to carry out foreign political influence operations, suppress dissident voices and activities, gather intelligence, and facilitate the transfer of technology to China. Ultimately, the CCP uses the “united front work” strategy to advance its economic, political, and security interests worldwide.
Cheng also served as a committee member of Guangzhou’s People’s Political Consultative Conference, a municipal political advisory body, according to prosecutors.
Hu was once an official working at the Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s highest administrative organ.
In 2021, Cheng recruited Hu—who had traveled to China after retiring—by exploiting Hu’s desire to retain a teaching job there, prosecutors said. Cheng later arranged a meeting between Hu and a Chinese United Front official surnamed Chen, who also served on a Central Committee working group on Taiwan affairs.
Chen then directed Hu to “recruit [Taiwanese] political figures as well as active and retired military personnel, in hopes of gaining insight into the activities of government agencies and political figures,” prosecutors said.
Cheng and Hu subsequently made several trips back to Taiwan to recruit other Taiwanese to work for China’s United Front Work Department, including village chiefs, retired government officials, and defense ministry contractors, according to prosecutors. Chen had sought to have the recruits meet him in China.
The two defendants’ recruitment efforts largely failed, as those who they approached refused to become spies. Nevertheless, prosecutors said the attempts posed a “serious threat” to Taiwan’s national security.
Cheng and Hu have been in custody since September last year, following a ruling by the Taiwan High Court, according to the press release.
Prosecutors are seeking a prison term of at least 10 years for Cheng, citing his failure to fully cooperate with investigators and his denial of any wrongdoing. In contrast, Hu has confessed to the charges and expressed remorse, and should therefore receive a lighter sentence than Cheng, prosecutors said.
The case comes as the Chinese regime is stepping up efforts to infiltrate Taiwan. In November last year, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council reported that 168 people were charged in 2024 for Chinese infiltration operations in Taiwan, compared with 86 in 2023 and 28 in 2022.
Earlier this month, Zhou Man-zhi, a naturalized Taiwanese citizen of Chinese origin, was sentenced to eight years in prison for violating the National Security Act by establishing organizations in Taiwan under the direction of the CCP.
