Taiwan has charged a father and son with gathering personal data on two of its intelligence officers for China — a direct hit to Taiwan's counter-espionage worries.

• A retired air force captain, surnamed Fei, is accused of collecting the home addresses, workplaces, vehicles and daily movements of two Taiwanese intelligence officers and passing them to China.
• He allegedly acted on orders from a man in China calling himself "Gao Jinli," for an unspecified payment.
• Fei had served as the head of a township in China's Hebei province after retiring from Taiwan's military.
• His son, who works at a real estate agency, is accused of using company systems to look up property records on one of the officers.
• Fei was detained in August and held incommunicado; he faces national security and intelligence charges, while his son is charged under data protection law.

Outlook: The case goes to trial under Taiwan's citizen judge system, part of a widening crackdown on Chinese recruitment of former Taiwanese military officers.