The National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday denied a report by China’s Global Times that it is recruiting Chinese students studying in Taiwan as intelligence sources by having them become proactive in joining the Chinese Communist Party and applying for government jobs once they return home.
The state-run Global Times published a report yesterday accusing Taiwanese intelligence operatives of using Chinese students enrolled at Taiwanese universities as sources, claiming the Chinese government has exposed more than 40 cases across 15 provinces.
The report contains the names, photographs, identification card numbers and birth dates of what it claims are three NSB officials who acted as the recruiters and had been active from 2009 to last year.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
According to the report, the head of the recruitment team, surnamed Tai (台), uses the pseudonym Sun (孫) and works for a creative company in Taipei.
Tai would tell Chinese students to submit their resumes, ask them to become regular part-time workers and then finally request that they provide information on China, the report said.
The second member of the team, surnamed Lin (林), pretended to be a student at National Kaohsiung Normal University and interacted with Chinese students, the report said, adding that Lin had also posted ads on job sites asking Chinese students to apply and when he interviewed them requesting that they apply for a position in the government when they returned to China.
The third member, surnamed Hsu (許), claimed to be a staff member of a family-operated company seeking to expand its business to China and sought to build up his connections in China by befriending Chinese students, the report said.
The report alleged that Hsu once pretended to be a student at Yilan University and asked a group of 10 or so Chinese students to attend a meeting to systematically eliminate some of the students before having one-on-one chats with the remaining students.
The report said that according to Chinese national security data, other Taiwanese intelligence officials have been known to recruit Chinese students from universities which house the majority of Chinese students in Taiwan, including National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University, National Chengchi University, National Central University, I-Shou University and others.
The report said that in the most recent case uncovered by Chinese authorities, a female Chinese student who studied briefly in Taiwan had been coerced and given money to work for Taiwanese intelligence.
The female had befriended members of the Chinese government who were involved in intelligence once she returned to China and asked for files, which she photographed and sent to her Taiwanese handler, the report claimed, adding that the female student later landed a government job in Southeast Asia and delivered information to Taiwan many times.
Denying the report, the NSB said yesterday that no intelligence unit has interfered in cross-strait academic interaction and development, adding that the bureau respects the academic freedom and the self-administration of schools.
The bureau said that questionnaires were an accepted part of social science research, adding that it has no authority to interfere in such matters.
The bureau said the request that all Chinese students return to their national security office for a “debriefing” after concluding their studies in Taiwan was an evident display of the Beijing’s attempts to control the freedom of speech and movement of its people.
The Ministry of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation also said separately that it has never heard of the three names in the report, adding its bureau’s job is to oversee domestic security, such as catching Chinese spies, but that it is not involved in work relating to counterintelligence outside of the nation.
Deputy Minister of Education Chen Te-hua (陳德華) said the ministry has not heard of any stories such as those in the Global Times report, adding that “this information still needs to be confirmed” and “if the accusations are proven, we’ll work with the relevant bodies to address the situation.”
The ministry’s stance is that education exchanges should not be complicated by political issues, Chen said.
National Kaohsiung Normal University said that Lin graduated last year, but it had never heard of any stories about him asking Chinese students to become intelligence assets for Taiwan.
Other students at the university who interact with Chinese students also said they had never heard such stories from Chinese students.
Chen Cheng (陳誠), a Chinese graduate student at National Taiwan University’s college of international business since 2011, said he has never heard of such an incident and had not been approached by anyone.
“It sounds ludicrous and could just be just hearsay,” Chen said, adding that students would only be able to offer very limited information.
Chinese student Tsai Po-yi (蔡博藝), who ran for head of National Tamkang University’s student council in August, also said he had never heard of such a matter.
When asked for comments on I-Shou University appearing on the list of universities, school president Hsiao Chieh-fu (蕭介夫) said he did nit think the report was plausible.
However, he said he would look into the matter, adding that “if it is true, then Taiwanese intelligence units have sunk very low indeed, as they should seek to make officials in China’s national security institutions assets rather than students.”
Additional reporting by Chien Li-chung and Abraham Gerber
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