By Lin Chia-tung and Hollie Younger / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A former Coast Guard Administration (CGA) commander convicted of spying for China yesterday became the first retired military officer to be detained for refusing to repay pension benefits, as stipulated under the National Security Act (國家安全法).

The Administrative Enforcement Agency’s Yilan Branch yesterday obtained approval from the Yilan District Court to detain retired commander Yeh Jui-chang (葉瑞璋) after he failed to explain why he had transferred a property to his wife, refused to propose a repayment plan and declined to return NT$10.03 million (US$310,147) in pension payments.

The Veterans Affairs Council and the Bureau of Public Service Pension Fund in March 2024 issued notices ordering Yeh to repay his pension, but he failed to comply and the case was referred to the Administrative Enforcement Agency’s Yilan branch.

Photo: Reuters

One month after receiving the repayment notice, Yeh transferred ownership of land and a residential property in Keelung’s Renai District (仁愛) to his wife as a “gift,” raising suspicions that he was attempting to conceal assets, the branch said.

The Supreme Court in January 2024 found Yeh guilty of providing classified documents to China, sentencing him to eight months in prison and confiscating NT$15,000 in illicit proceeds.

Yeh completed his prison sentence in June last year.

The Supreme Administrative Court in December rejected his appeal seeking to overturn an order requiring him to return the pension benefits received from July 2014, when he began spying for China.

The National Security Act states that military and government personnel, civil servants and teachers who commit treason, endanger national security or breach national security laws would no longer be able to receive pensions, and allows the government to recover retirement benefits already paid out.

The repayment was also ordered in accordance with the Act of Service for Officers and Noncommissioned Officers of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍軍官士官服役條例).

Yeh, who retired in 2008, was approached in 2013 by fellow retired CGA commander Lee Ching-hsien (李慶賢) to meet with a Chinese intelligence officer, who offered Yeh money to spy for China, court documents said.

Yeh obtained naval defense materials, construction plans for a facility on Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) and internal CGA reports to give to Lee, who passed them on to the Chinese officer in exchange for NT$15,000, the documents said.