The Ministry of National Defense refused to comment yesterday on reports that China had broken up another Taiwanese spy ring.
The spy story hit the headlines of a local newspaper yesterday.
The alleged ringleader was identified as 40-year-old Colonel Li Yun-fu (
A photo of him in casual wear was run in the story. It was quite unusual that the photo of an alleged intelligence agent operating in China was printed in a newspaper.
The paper identified another two persons -- Li's nephew Kao Kuo-ning (
The trio were said by the newspaper to have been rounded up recently by Chinese authorities. They were alleged to have collected information on the deployment of ballistic missiles targeted at Taiwan and the status of fighting ships with the East China Sea fleet.
The paper called the exposure of the spy ring the largest of its kind since 1998 when a major general and senior colonel in the People's Liberation Army were discovered to be spying for Taiwan.
The report claimed Li had contributed a lot of the information that President Chen Shui-bian (
Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明), appearing at a public occasion, would neither confirm nor deny the story.
National Security Council Secretary-General Kang Ning-hsiang (康寧祥) made some comments to reporters suggesting that he knew about the case. But Kang added, "I have yet to get more information."
Chang Bai-ta (
"Why did the pro-unification United Daily News get the scoop? Why was the report released in the lead-up to the March 20 presidential election? It would certainly have a negative effect on the DPP," Chang said.
Chang was not the only DPP official to have such doubts, given the number of alleged spy cases in the news recently.
Before the Lunar New Year holiday, reports in Hong Kong that more than 20 Taiwanese businessmen had been arrested in China for espionage triggered a feeding frenzy in local media.
China aired a live television broadcast of interviews with several of the so-called spies, who blame President Chen Shui-bian and Taiwan's government for not trying to save them.
Such broadcasts violated what Tang said was the principle of "not openly discussing a spy case" between countries.
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