Former Armed Police officers charged with espionage

The Chinese mainland has charged two former members of the People’s Armed Police Force with espionage, according to media reports.

The Hong Kong-based news website Takungpao reported on Monday that prosecutors in Jiangsu province have accused two people of spying for a Taiwan intelligence agency.

The report quoted Liu Hua, chief of the Jiangsu People’s Procuratorate, as saying that this is a “big spy case” that involves classified military information.

According to Liu, the two suspects, Ma Liangliang and Liang Xin, are retired officers from the Armed Police Force’s Beijing Corps who worked in Baoding, Hebei province, after retirement. 

It was reported that Wu Rongtong, an agent for an unidentified Taiwan intelligence agency, recruited them in July 2016.

The suspects took advantage of their knowledge of the Armed Police and their connections with officers in active service to collect information about training and equipment as well as defense contractors’ research and development activities, the prosecutor said.

Prosecutors in Suzhou, Jiangsu, filed charges of espionage against the suspects in May and a hearing related to the case has been held at a city court, according to the report.