Australian ‘spy’ in harsh detention

A new case involving a man accused of spying in China for Taiwanese intelligence is sparking fury among Australian lawmakers and at the Taiwanese representative office under

Australian newspapers yesterday revealed that James Sun, an Australian citizen, has been in jail in China for five years after being arrested by Chinese authorities on suspicion of spying for Taiwan.

After serving two years on death row, Sun is now serving a life sentence at Beijing Prison No. 2 in what the Sydney Morning Herald described as “harsh conditions.”

Sun’s wife, who contacted the media this week, said the Australian government had known of her husband’s detention since 2006, but had never made the case public. She was four months pregnant when her husband was convicted of spying for Taiwan, she says.

Reports say that in January 2006, Sun, who worked for an agency recruiting foreign students to Australia, went to China to visit his mother. He was apprehended by state security officials as he was heading out to dinner with friends from his days in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force.

Six days after Sun’s family reported him missing, officials at the Australian embassy in Beijing located Sun at a detention facility operated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security. Chinese authorities accused Sun of “seducing” Yang Delong, a former colleague who was still serving in the air force, into copying more than 1,000 classified documents and passing them on to Taiwanese intelligence, the Herald reported.

My article, published today in the Taipei Times, continues here.