The "5,000 Chinese spies" alleged to be operating in this country are actually "escaped illegal immigrants," rather than genuine spies, a National Security Bureau (NSB) official said yesterday.
Bureau Deputy Secretary-General Wang Hsi-tien (王西田) told an question-and-answer session at the legislature that roughly 5,000 Chinese have been living a clandestine existence since entering the country illegally.
Wang said the figure of 5,000 was arrived at based on cumulative calculations over several years.
His remarks were in response to a question about whether former deputy minister of national defense Lin Chong-pin's (林中斌) recent claim that there were more than 5,000 Chinese spies operating here was true.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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