Chinese-born American David Wei Dong, who is accused of stealing state secrets, may have "elicited a huge network of Taiwanese spying in the eastern United States," China Daily reports it learned from a well-placed source.

"Witnesses have revealed that a couple of people on Taiwan's intelligence agency's payroll, including Dong, passed large amounts of intelligence to Taiwan," the source reportedly said.

The revelations mentioned by the source include the oral declarations by another two figures who were arrested in China on espionage charges in 2001. One is Qin Guangguang, a permanent resident of the US who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2001 and later released for medical reasons; and the other is Wu Jianming, a US citizen who was expelled from China in the same year.

Dong was arrested last September shortly after he entered the mainland and is now being held in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

The US Embassy and Consulate have confirmed that Dong is an American citizen, but have said little else about the case.

The investigation that fingered Dong as being on the payroll of Taiwan's top intelligence agency, the "national security bureau," shows that he collected confidential information, including speeches by China's top leaders in closed-door meetings, information about political and economic conditions, and Beijing's policies towards Taipei and the United States.

Recruited by Taiwanese Peter Wang, then a key figure and now deputy secretary-general of Taiwan's "national security bureau," Dong also introduced several figures who reportedly became influential in the intelligence agency for their spying acts against the mainland, in addition to "lobbying activities" and "dollar diplomacy" in US political circles, according to the China Daily source.

For his activities, Dong allegedly received payments of US$3,000 per month from the Taiwan spy agency and US$7,000 as an expense fund. He also accepted a house valued at US$268,000 from the agency.

Dong will be transferred, "in all likelihood very soon," to prosecutorial departments for public prosecution, the source said.

According to Article 110 of China's Criminal Law, anyone who commits espionage and endangers national security will be sentenced to no less than 10 years of imprisonment, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. If the circumstances are relatively minor, the sentence is to be not less than three years and not more than 10 years.

Dong's family has employed Chen Manping, of the Guangdong Qiyuan Law Firm, as Dong's attorney.

There is no word yet on the exact date Dong will go to trial or what sort of sentence he could be facing.

Under the Chinese judicial system, formal indictment occurs when authorities make a decision to prosecute.

"As the case involves state secrets, I think the court may not conduct a public trial," Chen said.

Chen told China Daily on Sunday that his last meeting with Dong was on July 25 and that they are scheduled to meet again within the next couple of days.

Although he declined to give more details, the lawyer said that so far the procedure has been legal. He denied there was any pressure from outside sources although he admitted the sensitivity of the case.

Dong, 52, a former correspondent with a Beijing-based newspaper in Sichuan Province, also recruited Chinese students by granting them scholarships, using money from a US$1 million fund set up by the Taiwan military intelligence agency, according to the investigation.

Dong left the Chinese mainland to study in the United States in 1986 and became a US citizen in 1994.

Most of Dong's activities were allegedly conducted while he lived in the United States.

The Chinese mainland has announced arrests of a number of people over the past several years on spying charges.

Li Shaomin, a Chinese-born American, and Gao Zhan, a Chinese-American scholar, were convicted and expelled from the country in 2001. They were charged with collecting classified information about the mainland for the Taiwan intelligence agencies.

It is still unclear whether the US authorities have been aware of espionage occurring in the past several years in their territory or of the spy network involving US citizens or permanent residents.

Li Jianhua, a senior official with Chinese Embassy in Washington, said all the countries are concerned about their own countries' security, saying that Americans have "negative reactions" toward espionage.

"So do Chinese people," Li told China Daily by phone.

A Sino-US international relations analyst who asked to remain anonymous noted that espionage activities inside the territory of the United States also harm US interests.

In addition to espionage against the mainland, the Taiwan intelligence agencies' job also includes obtaining classified US information. US official memoranda issued in 1998, 1999 and 2000 warned that Taiwan's intelligence agencies attempted to obtain US technology for advanced weapons and confidential economic information, which would pose a threat to the country.

Taiwan authorities have "a substantial intelligence presence in the United States" and focus their spying efforts on the United States and China, the reports said.

Dong reportedly confessed that he and some other people also worked with Taiwanese lobbyists who paid "tens of millions" of US dollars to US consulting firms and foundations every year to seek support from the US for Taiwan, and sought to influence US politics using "dollar diplomacy."

Dong also reportedly confessed that in addition to valuable gifts, he saw some Taiwan intelligence employees sending "red envelopes (containing cash)" to US senior officials. For example, during Spring Festival of 2002, he reportedly saw an assistant of Peter Wang send a US senator expensive china and a red envelope that is said to have contained US$10,000.

Dong reportedly added that he was told that the intelligence agency also sent cash to some influential officials in the US government through consulting firms, although such actions are illegal in that country.

(China Daily August 16, 2004)