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Monday, Jun 11, 2012 8:15 AM UTC

Taiwan investigates navy ship’s missing laptop

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Topics: From the Wires,

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s military said Monday it is investigating how a laptop went missing from a guided-missile ship, with opposition lawmakers pointing the finger at Chinese spies.

Defense Ministry spokesman David Lo said the laptop went missing two weeks ago from the stealth ship docked at a navy port.

The ship, Kuanghua 6, is among a fleet of ships with stealth technology that Taiwan built in the last decade to carry out swift attacks against Chinese warships in the case of an invasion from the mainland.

News reports, citing unidentified military officials, say the laptop was connected to a main computer on board the boat that contains confidential data about Taiwan’s anti-ship missiles.

Opposition lawmakers said they feared the laptop had been stolen by Chinese spies.

Lin Yu-fang, a lawmaker with the Legislative Defense Committee, said he was told that the missing laptop did not contain “crucial” military secrets, but it indicated a security loophole that could undermine the island’s defenses against a possible Chinese attack.

Taiwan and China have conducted espionage against each other since they split amid civil war in 1949.

Relations between the two sides have warmed in recent years. However, China still claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory and has refused to renounce the use of force to put the island under its fold.

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