megan
12th Dec 2023, 11:58
From AvwebTaiwan has foiled a plot for the Chinese Navy to steal a CH-47 Chinook helicopter from the Taiwanese military. According to an indictment made public on Monday, China reportedly offered Taiwanese Army Lt. Col. Hsieh $15 million to fly the heavy lift chopper to a People’s Liberation Army Navy aircraft carrier that was to be carrying out drills near the island. What exactly put such a high price on a common utilitarian platform that first flew more than 50 years ago wasn’t released, but the plot involved Hsieh (only his last name was released) flying the helicopter “at low altitude along the coastline to the Chinese Communist carrier” about 24 nautical miles away.According to the indictment, Hsieh initially rejected the plan as too risky, but the Chinese spies working him kept sweetening the deal. When they offered to give him a $1 million deposit, a monthly salary of $6,355 and Thai visas for his family, he finally agreed. Intelligence officials were tipped to the plot, and Hsieh and another Taiwanese officer who acted as a go-between were arrested. “I feel pained too, to have discovered a case like this and those allegedly involved must be dealt with according to the law,” Chiu Kuo-Cheng said.