U.S.A.
May 15, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Taiwan-born Navy officer admits lying, mishandling secrets
By Ben Finley
The Associated Press
ORFOLK, Va. — The U.S. Navy
abandoned efforts to convict a
Taiwan-born Navy officer of
spying for China or Taiwan, striking a plea
deal instead that portrays him as arrogant
and willing to reveal military secrets to
impress women.
The agreement was a marked retreat
from last year’s accusations that Lt. Cmdr.
Edward C. Lin gave or attempted to give
classified information to representatives
of a foreign government.
But it still appears to end the impressive
military career of a man who came to
America at age 14. Lin joined the staff of an
assistant secretary of the Navy in
Washington and later was assigned to a
unit in Hawai‘i that flies spy planes.
Lin, 40, now faces dismissal from the
Navy and up to 36 years in prison at his
sentencing, scheduled for early June.
During the daylong court-martial in
Norfolk, Lin admitted that he failed to
disclose friendships with people in
Taiwan’s military and connected to its
government. He also conceded that he
shared defense information with women
he said he was trying to impress.
N
One of them is Janice Chen, an
American registered in the U.S. as a
foreign agent of Taiwan’s government,
specifically the country’s Democratic
Progressive Party.
Lin said he and Chen often discussed
news articles she e-mailed him about
military affairs. He admitted that he
shared classified information about the
Navy’s Pacific Fleet.
Moon’s turbulent life before winning presidency
Continued from page 5
born in January 1953. They initially lived
in a POW camp. As a boy, he often went to a
Catholic church with a bucket to get free
U.S. corn flour and milk powder.
College
After entering Seoul’s Kyung Hee
University in 1972, Moon joined a
pro-democracy movement to topple the
dictatorship of Park Chung-hee, who ruled
South Korea for 18 years until his 1979
assassination. Park is the father of
recently ousted conservative President
Park Geun-hye. In 1975, Moon was jailed
for months for staging anti-government
protests before being conscripted into the
military’s special forces.
Human-rights lawyer
Moon became a lawyer and joined Roh’s
law office in the early 1980s. They
defended the rights of poor laborers and
student activists until Roh entered politics
in 1988. Moon says their friendship
changed his life.
‘King secretary’
After Roh became president in 2003,
Moon became what local media called
Roh’s “King secretary” or “Roh Moo-hyun’s
shadow.” When Roh was impeached in
2004 over alleged election law violations,
Moon served as a defense lawyer before a
court restored Roh’s presidential power.
After Roh left office and faced a corruption
investigation, Moon was his lawyer. Roh
jumped to his death in May 2009.
Presidential challenge
Moon says Roh’s death led him to
politics. Moon lost the 2012 election to
Park Geun-hye by a million votes. When a
corruption scandal involving Park flared
last fall, Moon saw his popularity rise
amid massive public outrage toward her
conservative government.
Climbing Mount Tai:
6,000 steps up China’s
sacred mountain
He also divulged secrets to a woman
named “Katherine Wu,” whom he believed
worked as a contractor for Taiwan’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She actually
was an undercover FBI agent.
“I was trying to let her know that the
military profession in the United States is
an honorable and noble one,” Lin told
Cmdr. Robert Monahan, the military
judge. Lin said the military is less
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Continued from page 2
In the morning, we got up at four o’clock
to position ourselves for the sunrise,
apparently peak time on the mountain.
From Jade Emperor Peak, sitting
among hundreds of others, many in rented
green army overcoats to keep warm
against the strong wind, we were fortunate
enough to see a clear sunrise, majestically
bathing the mountain peaks in light.
After a breakfast of soybean milk and
fried dough sticks, we hiked for about five
hours down the mountain and through Tao
Hua Yu, or Peach Blossom Valley, a
beautiful walk through pine trees,
flowering peach trees, waterfalls, and
pools of water, not unlike a landscape you
might expect to find in central Europe.
Despite the many people, our weekend
trip to Taishan was a relaxing and
energizing experience. The greenery up
the mountain made for a picturesque
climb, and the second-day valley hike was
to me the highlight, and not just because
there were no steps up. It was serene,
allowing me to enjoy the landscape and
contemplate the greater vision I had
gleaned from the top of Mount Tai.
POOR JUDGEMENT. Lt. Cmdr. Edward C. Lin,
a native of Taiwan, speaks in this December 3, 2008
file photo. The U.S. Navy has abandoned efforts to
convict Lin of spying for China or Taiwan, striking a
plea deal instead that portrays him as arrogant and
willing to reveal military secrets to impress women.
(Sarah Murphy/U.S. Navy via AP, File)
prestigious in Taiwan.
Lin also had friends with other
connections, including a woman living in
China whom he met online, and a Chinese
massage therapist who moved to Hawai‘i .
Lin said he gave the massage therapist a
“large sum of money” at one point,
although he didn’t say why.
Lin also admitted to lying to superiors
about flying to Taiwan and planning to
visit China. But he said he did it only to
avoid the bureaucracy that a U.S. military
official must endure when travelling to a
foreign country.
“Sir, I was arrogant,” he told the judge.
A Navy press release about Lin’s
attendance at his naturalization ceremony
in Hawai‘i in December 2008 said he was
14 when he and his family left Taiwan.
“I always dreamt about coming to
America, the ‘promised land,”’ Lin was
quoted as saying. “I grew up believing that
all the roads in America lead to
Disneyland.”
n Polo
Polo’s “Talking Story”
column will return soon.
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Researchers seek better ways to farm popular Pacific fish
By Phuong Le
The Associated Press
ORT ORCHARD, Wash. —
Federal scientists at a research
facility near Seattle are studying
ways to make it easier and more efficient to
commercially grow a fish prized for its
buttery flavor.
The project to grow sablefish is part of a
larger effort by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to
support marine aquaculture to feed
growing demand worldwide for seafood.
The sablefish is also known as black cod
or butter fish. It is a fin fish native to the
northeast Pacific Ocean. It’s highly valued
in Asia for its delicate flavor.
U.S. west coast fishermen, mostly in
Alaska, catch millions of pounds of wild
P
sablefish each year. Some see a potential
opportunity to farm the sablefish.
Researchers with NOAA are developing
new techniques to make farming the fish
more viable.
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