The National Security Bureau (NSB) confirmed this week that about 20 Chinese companies with offices in Taiwan are being monitored closely because they pose security concerns.
Opposition legislators questioned bureau officials during a recent legislative session, saying there are reports that Chinese government and intelligence officials have free rein to roam Taiwan, since they can enter the country under the guise of conducting business, or as representatives of Chinese companies registered with offices in Taiwan.
NSB official Lai Yun-cheng (賴蘊誠) acknowledged that a number of Chinese companies are deemed “illegal” because they gave falsified information or carry out activities different from the work they registered their offices in Taiwan as doing, while some did not register with the correct government agencies, breaching laws on cross-strait relations and exchanges.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that many new businesses have opened offices in cities across Taiwan that have Chinese capital and Chinese owners, and that he had information some are engaged in illegal activities, while others are conducting propaganda campaigns on behalf of the Chinese government.
Lai, deputy head of the NSB’s Third Department, which is responsible for domestic security and intelligence, said his department had received information regarding the matter, and that it has been monitoring 103 such companies for illegal or “abnormal” activities.
Lai confirmed that up to 20 of the firms pose national security concerns, but he did not elaborate on what kind of illegal activities or the level of the threats.
He also said some Chinese think tank members and researchers come to Taiwan illegally — on the pretext of academic exchanges.
Former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said that many of the so-called Chinese businesspeople and their registered companies in Taiwan are either working for or have links with the Chinese government’s main propaganda and political warfare agency, the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party.
“Beijing has been backing Chinese companies and businesspeople to set up operations and offices in Taiwan,” Hsu said. “They seem to be scattered across Taiwan, but are linked with networking communications. They are also doing espionage work, gathering information and some are carrying out clandestine missions.”
He added that some Taiwanese willingly work for the Chinese government and are carrying out propaganda campaigns or seeking to build relationships with influential people in Taiwan.
“We also know cases of the Chinese government using foreign capital to set up companies in Taipei, which on paper have Taiwanese owners and managers, but are in fact controlled by either the United Front Work Department or the Chinese military,” he said.
“Some individuals are lured by money, for personal benefits, while others do so on ideological grounds, and work for the Chinese government,” he added.
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