Legislator raises warning against Chinese spy influx

Citing national security concerns, DPP lawmakers yesterday called on the government to publicize cases where Chinese spies had infiltrated Taiwan.

"Yu Ke-li (余克禮), a Chinese scholar who visited Taiwan in April, is in fact deputy director of China's 15th department of the Ministry of State Security (國安局)," said DPP lawmaker Wang Hsing-nan (王幸男).

Wang added that another person holding a high rank in the Chinese government had been invited to Taiwan by National Central University.

Yu, a deputy director of the Taiwan Research Institute within the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was in Taiwan in April and met with various Taiwanese political figures during his visit.

Wang said that the information concerning Yu had been confirmed by Han Kun, deputy director of the National Security Bureau, during their meeting at the Legislative Yuan yesterday.

"Han Kun told me that he was aware of Yu's identity, and that therefore, everything was `under control,'" Wang said.

Wang went on to say that Wu Guozhen (吳國禎), a visiting scholar invited by the National Central University's (中央大學) department of physics, who stayed in Taiwan from Jan. 1 to June 26, is a member of the standing committee of China's Taiwan Democratic Self-government League.

Ethnically Taiwanese, Wu earned a bachelor's degree from National Tsing Hua University, but had been working for various Chinese academic institutions since 1977. He is presently teaching at Qinghua University in Beijing, according to Wang.

Wang said the National Security Bureau should make public all spy cases to protect national security.

Cheng Tao-leng (鄭道隆), an aide to Wang, told the Taipei Times that Wu had been invited by National Central University with the assistance of Li Wen-Chien (李文獻), a professor of the university's physics department. Cheng said the National Science Council had even sponsored part of the project.

Cheng said he would continue to look into the case to determine if National Central University and the National Science Council were aware of Wu's status when they decided to invite him.

Lawmakers attending the press conference also raised concerns about the lack of police to monitor Chinese entering Taiwan.

DPP Legislator Chang Ching-fang (張清芳) said that the number of Chinese nationals coming to Taiwan since 1998, when visits were first allowed between the two countries, was rising at an alarming rate.

"The number [of Chinese visitors] will grow even faster after the `small three links' (小三通) are opened Jan. 1. But there are half the number of police necessary to handle the number of Chinese coming across the border," Chang said.

Cheng, Wang and another DPP lawmaker, Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), drafted a joint petition to police authorities to expand the number of police officers to deal with Chinese visitors to two or three per police station.

Meanwhile, yesterday Han said that the number of suspected Chinese spies under observation by Taiwan's intelligence agencies was " in the hundreds."