Taiwan has charged an army sergeant with selling classified military files to a Chinese recruitment network, a sign of how deeply Beijing has burrowed into Taiwan's ranks.

• A 34-year-old military police sergeant, surnamed Chiang, was indicted in Kaohsiung for handing confidential military records to a China-linked group for cash.
• He was recruited after a Chinese national found him looking for loans online to cover his debts, starting in 2022.
• Before joining, he was made to record videos backing unification with China and promising not to fight in a war with Beijing.
• He downloaded close to 100 files from a military system in 2024 and took roughly NT$600,000 in payments; he later re-enlisted to keep the pipeline open.

Outlook: Chiang stays in detention as he faces trial, and Taiwan is likely to keep tightening vetting of soldiers with money problems, the weak point China keeps exploiting.