China's national security agencies announced Thursday that they have arrested another Taiwanese "spy." They also announced details of "spy" cases involving Taiwanese businesspeople operating in China and their addresses in Taiwan, and have invited Taiwanese journalists to interview these "Taiwanese spies."
The Chinese government has handled these spy cases in a sensationalistic way -- as Iraq did in publicizing photographs of war prisoners -- to initiate a psychological war against the Taiwanese people, and an intelligence war against Taiwan's intelligence agencies. This is a new wave of Chinese propaganda and military threats.
China has held four press conferences to announce Taiwanese espionage cases since late last year. The number of spies mentioned at these press conferences has ranged from 21 to seven, leaving us confused. Even more bizarre, the seven names publicized by Beijing Wednesday are the same as those mentioned by former New Party legislator Elmer Feng (馮滬祥) at a press conference last Friday. No wonder some say Beijing and Feng are working together.
The cross-strait situation has become very tense since former president Lee Teng-hui's (
The reports that the seven businessmen arrested by China have been prying into military matters and that Taiwan's MIB has obtained information from them may very well be false, or even the result of forced confessions.
China does not respect human rights. Any careless act by a Taiwanese businessman might be considered espionage. It is not very strange that Taiwanese officials and intelligence agencies have reacted by saying that this is all a political scheme by China aimed at helping the pan-blue camp attack President Chen Shui-bian (
Apart from the obvious political manipulation aimed at assisting the pan-blue camp's accusation that Chen's announcement of the number and location of China's ballistic missiles helped betray the identity of Taiwan's spies, there is also a behind-the-scenes cross-strait intelligence war going on. Late last year, military investigators cracked a case involving Chinese espionage in Taiwan's military intelligence system, and a network of Chinese spies in Taiwan.
There are complex motives behind China's disclosure of information about Taiwanese spies, including code names, aliases, salaries and contacts in the MIB. Laying the spy case so bare is an obvious display of force. Only the intelligence personnel on the two sides know the truth.
On one hand, Chinese President Hu Jintao (
The cross-strait political standoff and confrontation do nothing to ease the tensions caused by the spy case. If Beijing really is sincere about resolving the problem, it should allow members of ARATS and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (
Engaging in a war of words will only aggravate the situation. The best way to allay tension is to initiate dialogue and negotiations.
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