A Taiwanese businessman has been charged with working as a double agent for China and turning a former military intelligence officer to spy for the mainland, a report said Wednesday.
Prosecutors indicted Lo Ping on charges of leaking secrets and corruption but sought a relatively short six-year jail term after Lo "confessed and showed remorse," said the Taipei-based China Times.
Lo, a businessman and informant for Taiwanese intelligence, allegedly became a double agent for Beijing after he was arrested in China. He later recruited a member of Taiwan's military intelligence to help him, the report said.
He reportedly passed confidential information to China for between 2,000 and 3,000 US dollars each time, earning about 40,000 US dollars in total during his three years as a double agent, it said.
His accomplice was indicted by military prosecutors for selling secret information to China, including a list of Taiwanese agents stationed on the mainland, it added.
Local media have said the information the duo provided had compromised crucial Taiwanese intelligence networks on the mainland, with the agents now "running for their lives."
According to Taiwan's defence ministry, relevant "damage control" measures have been initiated since the two were arrested last year.
Taiwan and China have spied on each other ever since they split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Beijing still regards the island as its territory awaiting reunification.
Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.
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