TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former advisor to Taiwan’s navy Kuo Hsi (郭璽) has said nobody challenged Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun's (馬文君) refusal to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) about Taiwan’s submarine Hai Kun submarine.
Kuo told reporters on Monday (Oct. 2) that Ma was allowed to access classified files despite refusing to sign the NDA. He added no one dared to make her sign it.
He was referring to reports that Ma copied notes from classified documents relating to Taiwan's submarine. She is alleged to have taken the notes out of a classified meeting.
Ma is a member of Taiwan's Taiwan's Foreign and National Defense Committee (FNDC). Kuo said if an FNDC convener refuses to sign the NDA nobody, including the defense minister would force them.
He said this was why Ma was able to copy notes from classified documents relating to the submarine in a classified meeting. He added Ma had done this in part because “she doesn’t understand English,” which was the language in which the documents were written.
Kuo's comments come after he accused Ma of leaking secrets relating to Taiwan's first indigenous submarine to a foreign country. He spoke to reporters at the Taipei district prosecutor's prosecutors office before he opened a defamation lawsuit against her.
Kuo Hsi speaks to reporters in Taipei on Oct. 2, 2023. (Taiwan News photo)
While speaking to reporters on Monday about the allegations against Ma, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chao Tien-Lin (趙天麟) asked “why did Ma take copies of classified documents out of a classified meeting in 2019?” He added, “Why did she repeatedly leave the room to make phone calls, and why did she refuse to sign the NDA?,” per Apple Daily.
Kuo reaffirmed his previous allegations that Ma leaked state secrets to the security services of a foreign country. He added that Ma's actions led to the arrest of foreign citizens who helped Taiwan build the Hai Kun.
When asked by reporters which country the secret documents had been given to, Kuo replied that he could not provide that information. He added that given Ma’s position as a member of the FNDC she was aware of the damage that such a leak would have on the reputation of the unnamed country.
Kuo said, “The main issue here is whether Ma Wen-chun betrayed her country.”
Article 109 of Taiwan’s criminal code under the chapter “Treason” states, “Any person disclosing or delivering to a foreign state or to its agent a document, plan, information, or another thing specified in the preceding paragraph shall be sentenced to imprisonment not less than three years but not more than 10 years.”
