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.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS