The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Tuesday said it had taken measures to prevent espionage by party members, after a former staffer was allegedly discovered using a cellphone with a Chinese spying app.
Former DPP staffer Huang Chu-jung (黃取榮) and four other former party members allegedly gathered information on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) while working for the government.
DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) said the party is requiring notification from its officials before they leave the country and to report upon return, increasing officials’ understanding of national security and conducting background checks of all new party members.
Investigating the background of prospective party members should be a given. This is true for anyone who would gain access to confidential information, but should also be true for junior party members. The CCP usually uses low-level officials or military personnel to establish a network of people who are privy to sensitive information.
The efficacy of informing recruits about the illegality and risks to national security of working with the CCP would depend on their motivations. Entry-level officials and staffers would not be well-paid, and they might be ideologically conditioned, making them prime targets for the CCP. The best approach would be to ensure that there are clear paths for career development for military and public service recruits, and to convey those opportunities when they are recruited. It should also inform recruits that acts of sedition could result in jail time and a lifetime exclusion from public service employment.
Placing conditions on the international travel of DPP members might deter contact with CCP members abroad, but the DPP has limited capabilities to investigate who staffers interact with when they are outside Taiwan, particularly in China.
It could ban staffers from traveling to China outright, but that is also unlikely to be effective. Much like how Americans visit Cuba by flying there from Mexico or Canada, despite a US tourism ban on Cuba, Taiwanese could fly to China from Japan or a neighboring country. It could still require disclosure of foreign travel and contacts with Chinese nationals, but this would be more of a formality than an effective measure for preventing collusion. Also, it would be of limited benefit to prevent DPP members from visiting China if those of opposition parties could still do so.
What the government could do instead is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to track changes in people in the military’s or public service’s patterns of travel, economic activity and daily routines, as well as changes in their access to information or contacts. Such activity could be flagged for a follow-up by senior staff or, in the case of egregious changes in behavior, national security officials.
Commenting on a ban on exchanges between Taiwanese universities and three Chinese universities, the Mainland Affairs Council on Tuesday said that the schools were among “multiple channels” that the CCP uses to “attract and absorb Taiwanese.”
The ban, which went into effect on Feb. 20, applies to Huaqiao University, Beijing Chinese Language and Culture College and Guangzhou-based Jinan University, where Huang studied.
The ban is really a moot point, because all businesses and universities in China are under the administration and influence of the CCP to some degree, even if the CCP does not always exert its control directly.
Authorities generally aim to control the extent of cross-strait exchanges, like opening a water tap only slightly to avoid a flood. The problem is that the CCP has its hand in every single exchange that takes place with Taiwan. The more exchanges that take place, the harder it is to keep the deluge at bay. The government should use AI to the best extent possible, and scrutinize all cross-strait exchanges.
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