Wednesday’s indictment of New Party spokesman Wang Ping-chung (王炳忠) and other party members on charges of organizing a spy network and violating national security laws highlights the broadening scope of China’s espionage operations and “united front” work tactics against Taiwan, political commentator Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said yesterday.
Two Chinese government agencies appear to have been directing the spying, intelligence gathering and recruitment of favorable targets, Yang said: China’s Taiwan Affairs Office’s (TAO) Political Party Bureau and the Shanghai Liaison Bureau of the Political Work Department of the Chinese Central Military Commission, an important body of the Chinese Communist Party.
It is known that the TAO directs Chinese programs and policies involving Taiwan, while the liaison bureau and Central Military Commission’s work covers a broad range of fields and activities, he said.
“Much of the Chinese government’s external liaison work entails espionage and intelligence gathering, along with media and propaganda campaigns against foreign countries,” Yang said.
“Their ‘liaison work’ also includes subversion tactics, infiltration into foreign countries’ armed forces and political circles, and consolidating dissident forces that support China’s cause,” he added.
Taipei prosecutors indicted Wang and New Party youth wing executives Ho Han-ting (侯漢廷) and Lin Ming-cheng (林明正) for organizing a spy network with funding from China, while Wang’s father, Wang Chin-pu (王進步), was indicted as an accessory.
The suspects allegedly worked with convicted Chinese spy Zhou Hongxu (周泓旭), their liaison with the Chinese agencies, who directed recruitment efforts and “united front” work in Taiwan from his “Star Fire Secret Unit” (星火秘密小組), prosecutors said.
Under Zhou’s guidance and with Chinese financial assistance, Wang and his fellow party members set up the pro-unification propaganda Web site Fire News (燎原新聞網), they said.
They also started the Association of New Chinese Sons and Daughters, the Chinese Culture Rejuvenation Association — a student club at National Taiwan University — and other social and cultural organizations aimed at attracting like-minded students and young people, prosecutors said.
“Through these organizations, the defendants set up informative Web sites to promote their work, created fan pages on social media, and organized social activities and academic seminars,” the indictment said.
Prosecutors said nine retired and active military personnel were contacted to obtain classified materials and Lin was found to have provided Zhou with personal information and contact details of soldiers in the Army Aviation and Special Forces Command’s elite unit, the Airborne Special Service Company.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS