An agent at the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau (MJIB) yesterday was indicted on suspicion of deleting a number of profiles from the bureau’s computers of Chinese officials coming to Taiwan.
Taipei prosecutors said Shen Ming-sheng (沈明生) was in charge of monitoring Chinese visiting and living in Taiwan and investigating suspected Chinese intelligence officers operating here.
Part of his job functions also -involved monitoring and updating a number of profiles of Chinese citizens.
Prosecutors said that to reduce his workload, Shen is suspected of having accessed his supervisor’s computers without authorization and deleting 113 profiles of Chinese “persons of interest.”
Prosecutors said that after the bureau became aware of the situation, it referred Shen to prosecutors for investigation. Prosecutors said Shen’s behavior violated the Offenses Against Impaired Computer Use (妨害電腦使用罪).
With an increasing number of Chinese visiting Taiwan, the need for the national security apparatus to closely monitor their actions has taken on special importance.
The development comes in the wake of revelations last week that Taiwanese authorities may have conspired with Chinese officials to keep a visit by Chinese Vice Minister of Public Security Chen Zhimin (陳智敏) and his delegation to Taiwan last month secret until after the delegation had returned to China.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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