Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The High Court yesterday convicted eight current and retired military officers for developing a spy network for China, including a failed plot to fly a CH-47 Chinook attack helicopter to a Chinese aircraft carrier in the Taiwan Strait.

The defendants received sentences ranging from 18 months to 13 years for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法) and taking bribes.

The defendants were with key military sites, including the 601st Brigade of Aviation and Special Forces Command and the Huadong Defense Command.

Russian President Vladimir Putin probably believed in his heart that after invading Ukraine it would be left with no choice but to take a beating with no means of fighting back. He likely believed Ukraine would use up all of its might to defend itself and be left with no energy to turn the fight around and into Russia. He was relaxed and unburdened. Regardless of which direction the war would take, the fight would never leave Ukrainian territory. The Russian public believed the same thing and did not concern themselves with the war, with some even going so far as to support Putin.

Putin’s smug sense of security was a golden opportunity for Ukraine to implement a strategic surprise attack. Putin has assigned the majority of Russian troops to the eastern and southern Ukraine battlefronts, thereby weakening border defenses and leaving the door into Russian territory wide open. Ukraine, with intelligence provided by Europe and the US, knew the Russian military’s weaknesses. After receiving F-16 jets that gave its air force an advantage, Ukraine audaciously launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.