China's intelligence agents may be seducing, literally, domestic high-tech talent, DPP lawmakers said yesterday.
Single computer engineers in Hsinchu are potential sources of information leaks and are wanted by China's intelligence system, DPP Legislator Trong Chai (
Chai gave the warning one day after revealing how China was trying to gain access to the heart of the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology.
Chai and his fellow DPP lawmakers said military officials and high-tech talent based in Hsinchu, Taoyuan and Miaoli had been targeted by China's intelligence system as sources of classified information on electronic warfare and business.
"The government should be aware of possible espionage in the form of China deploying secret agents disguised as hostesses near the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, top military science and technology hubs and also major stations for the Mirage fighter plane squadron," Chai said.
He added that a significant number of Chinese illegal immigrants arrived by either nominal marriage with Taiwanese nationals or as stowaways who later work in the sex industry.
National security is at risk as they may be working for China's intelligence unit. They can lure, through their feminine charms, domestic workers who may be careless when it comes to being tight-lipped about confidential information, Chai said.
Chai said China possesses information on all of Taiwan's young pilots and has a file with information on the country's Mirage 2000-5 pilots.
Another DPP legislator, Lee Chen-nan (李鎮楠), shares Chai's view and linked a growing number of bars and wine shops in technology and military centers with the suspected increase in spying activities.
Many of the new bars were located near military camps to attract not only young high-tech talent in Hsinchu but also to seduce soldiers and high-ranking military officials.
The lawmakers suggested that reinforcing internal control and monitoring work of personnel in the military was needed to solve the security flaw.
"The government must do something to prevent single computer engineers and soldiers from being lured by China through sexual seduction," said independent Legislator Peter Lin (
Lin said some Chinese residents successfully acquired Taiwanese citizenship by using false documents showing that they were representatives or former residents of Kinmen or Matsu.
A number of these people are serving their military service right now and some even work as grocers inside military camps, Lin said. He said it is necessary to make sure none of these people are involved in espionage activities for China.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the