Ex-spy barred from Beijing trip

An ex-intelligence officer who planned to turn himself in to Chinese security authorities for spying against China during the 1996 missile crisis was barred from leaving the country yesterday.

Chang Chih-peng (張志鵬) planned to take a flight to Hong Kong yesterday but was stopped at CKS International Airport by law enforcement officials who acted upon an order from the Taipei District Prosecutors' office.

The prosecutors ordered that Chang be barred from leaving the country on the grounds that he might leak secrets to China.

Chang said he didn't do anything illegal and that he has the right to travel to China. He said he will try to go to China "by his own way."

In an interview with the Taipei Times Wednesday night, Chang said he had no choice but to go to Beijing.

"The Military Intelligence Bureau has been treating me coldly. I am physically ill now. I would rather go to Beijing and die there," Chang said.

Chang worked for the bureau between 1990 and 1996, collecting information on the Chinese military while posing as a businessman.

Chang provided vital information to the bureau during the 1996 crisis about the Chinese military's missile tests and troop maneuvers.

He got the information via a major general in the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), Liu Liankun (劉連昆), who was then with the armaments section of the PLA's general logistics department. Liu was able to provide vital information to Taiwan because his job was to handle missile-related affairs.

Liu was later discovered to be spying for Taiwan by Chinese security authorities due to what Chang called a slip of tongue by then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).

Lee's slip was made when he sought to calm the public as China fired missiles into the waters off Taiwan during the run-up to Taiwan's first presidential election in 1996. At the time he told the nation that the missiles only carried dummy warheads.

But in the interview with the Taipei Times, Chang revealed that the real reason Liu's spying activities were discovered was a mistake by Taiwan's then-intelligence chief Yin Chung-wen (殷宗文).

Chang claimed Yin's actions had allowed evidence of Liu's spying to fall into the hands of Chinese authorities.

"Lee's remarks about the dummy warheads were a sufficient enough reason for Chinese security authorities to suspect Liu of leaking information since Liu was responsible for missile-related affairs," Chang said.

"But the Chinese security authorities were not able to find any concrete evidence against Liu until Yin sent someone to take over my intelligence job in China," Chang said.

"Yang's arrival in Beijing, as well as a cassette tape he had, were the real reasons Liu's cover identity was discovered by Chinese security authorities. The tape was of Liu's voice," he said.