A Taiwan court handed jail terms Thursday ranging from four to ten years to four people, including a former staffer in President Lai Ching-te's office, for spying for China.

The four people were charged in June, a month after they were expelled from Lai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) -- which advocates for Taiwan's sovereignty - over suspected espionage.

China claims democratic self-ruled Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex it.

Taipei accuses Beijing of using espionage and infiltration to weaken its defences.

The Taipei District Court said in a statement the four were convicted of violating the Classified National Security Information Protection Act for leaking state secrets to China.

"The information they spied on, collected, leaked a

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