Taiwan's spy scandal around former TV news anchor Lin Chen-yu has grown, with a health ministry staffer now facing a 12-year prison request — a sign Beijing's recruiting reaches deeper into Taiwan's bureaucracy than first thought.

• A contract researcher at Taiwan's health ministry has been charged with photographing secret official documents and sending them to a Chinese contact over Telegram.
• The payoff was small — a monthly retainer plus task fees for things like handing over lists of reporters and digging up dirt on the government.
• Prosecutors say part of the money came from Lin Chen-yu, the ex-anchor at the center of the case, and was routed through other people's bank accounts to hide the trail.
• The same money pipeline allegedly paid off military personnel, tying the civilian and military ends of the network together.
• Charges span national security law, corruption, and money laundering; the accused stays in custody pending trial.

Outlook: More arrests are likely as prosecutors trace the payment network, and Taiwan will face fresh pressure to tighten vetting of contract government staff.