Pan Hsi-hsien (
NSB Director-General Ting Yu-chou (
Pan, who formerly served in the personnel department at the NSB, took a trip to China's Guangdong Province three days after retiring, violating regulations governing trips to China by senior NSB officials.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I believe Pan will be freed in two days if China is a country ruled by law. If not, I think it will greatly affect the image of China in the minds of people in Taiwan as well as Taiwanese businessmen in China," Ting said. He also apologized for the incident.
He was speaking at a press conference convened to explain the situation. The last time the NSB had to hold a press conference was May 29, when former President Lee Teng-hui (
Ting said Pan was picked up early yesterday by one of China's security agencies, shortly after Pan's wife Liang Mei-ling (
Pan was due to return to Taiwan at mid-day yesterday to face press speculation about his motives for traveling to China, his wife said.
Ting said, "I don't think Pan will be treated badly by China. He did not go there on a spying mission. He simply went there to take a deputy general manager job offered by the subsidiary company of a Taiwan-based firm in Shenzhen, Guangdong." Ting said.
"But we must admit the incid-ent will put the NSB under a certain risk. Pan did not have access to classified information while serving at the NSB. But he did know a lot about NSB's personnel data and operations across the country," he said.
"We want to assure the public, however, that the security of the country and other intelligence units will not be endangered as a result. We are pretty sure that Pan did not take away or have access to any classified information about Taiwan's intelligence operations in China," Ting said.
While agreeing that there had been a lapse in security, Ting denied the NSB had been told by Pan of his plans.
But, a high-ranking NSB official, who joined a farewell party for Pan on May 26, confirmed Pan had said he would like to travel to China after retirement, but that it had been assumed he was joking.
Pan's wife admitted her husband knew about the regulations barring retired intelligence officials or other similar public servants from traveling to China within three years of their retirement.
When he was reminded of the fact, Liang said, Pan replied that as far as he knew, the regulations had not passed the third reading at the legislature.
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