China Jails 3 Performers as Taiwan Spies

China said Thursday that three performers for cultural groups have been sentenced to prison as spies for Taiwan.

The performers--an actor, a musician and a member of a Peking opera company--received sentences of three to 10 years, it was announced by the Ministry of State Security, the intelligence agency that monitors contacts between Chinese and foreigners.

Over the last few years, China has charged a number of people with spying for Taiwan, and some have been executed. The new case is unusual, however, because it involves the arts and alleged spying activities during overseas travel.

The prosecutions were not made public until after the sentencing. Trial dates were not announced.

Article 111 of China’s criminal procedure law says that “cases involving state secrets or the private affairs of individuals are not to be heard in public.”

Secret Party Document

The harshest sentence, 10 years, was given to Xin Peiwen, described as a 46-year-old actor in an army cultural troupe. According to the security ministry, Xin contacted agents of Taiwan’s Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, in October, 1983, through an unidentified friend who lived overseas.

The ministry said that last year, Xin used a colleague who traveled abroad to pass to the agents a top secret document of the General Office of the Communist Party Central Committee. The colleague was not named.

The ministry said Xin was appointed a lieutenant colonel in Taiwan’s intelligence service and was given 1,900 yuan (about $675), a camera, two radios and invisible ink. It said he was ordered to collect more intelligence, recruit more agents and “incite defection, especially among air force pilots.”

Actor and Nephew

The second person convicted was Li Qiang, 39, an actor in an experimental Peking opera group. He was said to have been bribed by Kuomintang agents in 1982, while the opera group was performing overseas.

The country where the opera group was performing was not named. An American diplomat said Wednesday night that he does not believe that any experimental opera groups from China have visited the United States.

Li’s nephew, Su Mao, was the third performer named by the security ministry. Su, 27, a musician for Peking’s Central Ballet Company, was said to have been recruited by Li after Li returned from the trip overseas. Su was said to have sent several messages to Taiwan agents and to have been paid 1,700 yuan (about $600) for his work.