The accusations of alleged spying against former Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) deputy minister Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) have led to serious concerns over national security.
Since the National Assembly abolished the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期臨時條款) on April 22, 1991, Chinese spy cases have generally concerned military leaks. This time around it is not a military matter and it involves a top-level official directly appointed by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) infiltration of Taiwan has reached unprecedented levels. The most infamous non-military official involved in spying on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was undoubtedly Luo Qingchang (羅青長), who passed away in Beijing last year. From the Chinese Civil War onward Luo spent all his time dealing with the KMT. He first joined CCP spy chief Wu Defeng (吳德峰) and began infiltrating the Nationalist army. After the KMT fled to Taiwan he became one of then-Chinese premier Zhou Enlai’s (周恩來) trusted aides and served as vice secretary-general of the State Council, where he was in charge of foreign affairs, intelligence and Taiwan affairs.
After the CCP took power, a lot of attention was given to Taiwan and Hong Kong, which remained beyond the CCP’s reach. As the highest leader of the intelligence service, Zhou pursued a “termite policy,” according to a former top CCP official speaking on a Hong Kong television program discussing the Hong Kong annexation process.
A tree attacked by termites will always fall, regardless of how pretty its exterior is or how large it is. Hong Kong is a perfect example.
Beginning in 1957, the Hong Kong and Macau Working Committee, which was responsible for infiltrating Hong Kong, was sent there directly, with important members of the committee officially posted there, carrying out their duties through the local branch of the Xinhua news agency. It was not until negotiations began between the UK and China regarding the handover of Hong Kong that the territory’s residents began to understand the CCP’s influence in the territory, but by then it was already too late.
Compared with the unfamiliarity of Hong Kongers to CCP infiltration, the people of Taiwan lived through the persecution of the White Terror era when the KMT was constantly searching for “communist bandits.” Then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) worked tirelessly to instill the feeling that the CCP was an enemy bent on destroying Taiwan, which also became the rationale behind his dictatorship. Therefore, it is preposterous that, since taking office in 2008, Ma has been trying to convince people that the CCP is now suddenly Taiwan’s ally.
As China holds a gun in one hand and offers the other hand in friendship, Ma wants the nation to fully embrace the offer of friendship. The Chang case will reveal the reality that the Ma administration, which is selling Taiwan down the river, does not want the public to see: The CCP is Taiwan’s enemy.
In addition, the CCP did nothing to offer any kind of clarification for several days after the news broke, and it did not reject either the view that Chang was a communist spy or that it has been infiltrating Taiwan, when it did finally issue a statement.
The rushed removal of Chang from office clearly implies that the Ma administration had underestimated the extent of this infiltration. The nation should demonstrate its dissatisfaction by halting all official exchanges with China for an indeterminate period. Furthermore, the policy of all-out cooperation with the CCP must be reconsidered, including termination of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
Just like the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Hong Kong and China, the ECFA brings closer economic integration than the WTO. If the CEPA is a CCP strategy to annex Hong Kong in practice, then the ECFA is a strategy aimed at allowing the CCP to quickly gain control over Taiwan’s economy and restrict its autonomy.
The Ma administrations’ insistence on dealing with an enemy that still has well over 1,000 missiles aimed at Taiwan, by holding all doors wide open, has been questioned, and since the fundamental mutual trust underpinning the ECFA has been destroyed by the ongoing spy allegations, the government should unilaterally terminate the agreement, citing ECFA Article 16.
In addition to holding an important position in a national security agency, Chang was also one of the main officials in charge of formulating policies toward China and cross-strait agreements before being forced to step down.
As deputy chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), Chang controlled both official and non-governmental channels for contact with the CCP. Thanks to his unique position he monopolized cross-strait exchanges.
Chang took up his positions after Ma’s re-election in 2012, at the time when negotiations on the cross-strait service trade agreement began. That the agreement met with such strong opposition shows that the government did not control the situation. The public has finally realized that behind the opaque service trade agreement, there are massive irreversible irregularities.
Since the revelations made so far imply that secret information that has been leaked would have an impact on the service trade and other agreements, there is reason to believe that these agreements will not protect the nation’s interests. Terminating the ECFA must be a precondition if China wants to patch up the cross-strait relationship.
Other policies that help China erode Taiwan’s economy should also be immediately terminated, the most controversial among these being the establishment of free economic pilot zones. Chinese state capital under the CCP’s control can enter Taiwan directly without cooperation with foreign investors by instead relying on what is fundamentally an unfree version of “free trade.”
Of course, we should forget all about the cross-strait peace agreement, which is said to have made up the main part of the leaked information.
Leung Man-to is a professor of political science at National Cheng Kung University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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