China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday.
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel, he added.
The CCP’s early infiltration efforts primarily sought to recruit “mid-level military officers” who have easier access to classified intelligence, but their reach has started to extend to noncommissioned officers and enlisted personnel, he said, citing investigations into suspected espionage cases.
Before the meeting, reporters asked Tsai about China’s reservation of offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea for 40 days from March 27 until May 6.
The alerts, known as notice to air missions, appeared to serve military and political purposes, he said.
Militarily, it is likely intended to test the operations of foreign military aircraft, particularly those of the US, Tsai said.
The alerts would remain in place until almost exactly one week before a planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), he added.
The zones stretch south from the Yellow Sea, facing South Korea, to the East China Sea, facing Japan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Beijing has not given an official explanation or confirmed military exercises, it said.
A US reconnaissance aircraft on Monday entered one of the reserved airspaces to conduct operations, indicating that China could be using the opportunity to test the US response, Tsai said.
Regarding China’s ongoing “gray zone” activities and Taiwan’s maritime domain awareness, which were also mentioned in the report, he said the activities are a critical threat to national security, and Taiwan has established an interagency coordination mechanism.
The mechanism functions across several tiers, beginning with early warning systems to detect suspicious vessels and moving into real-time reporting protocols, he said.
The framework also facilitates maritime law enforcement to verify activities on-site, and it addresses critical infrastructure protection, ensuring that any damage to undersea cables triggers immediate repairs and formal judicial investigations, he said.
Emphasizing the high level of global concern regarding China’s maritime pressure, Tsai said that maritime domain awareness has become a cornerstone of Taiwan’s intelligence exchanges with international partners.
The NSB would continue to leverage international cooperation and interagency synergy to strengthen the nation’s situational judgement and response capabilities, he added.
Additional reporting by Fang Wei-li
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