Allegations that military officials and former legislators' assistants have been spying on behalf of the Chinese government has apparently given lawmakers some food for thought.
While some legislators yesterday warned the Ministry of National Defense to guard against China's possible use of "female charms" to infiltrate the nation's intelligence network, other called on their colleagues to promote secrecy in the legislature.
DPP legislators Trong Chai (
According to Chai and Lin, a large number of Chinese women have come to Taiwan through illegal means and work in brothels -- and some of them have even been admitted to high-class social functions.
"Under these circumstances, there is no guarantee that the beauties sitting next to the military officials and politicians aren't secret agents from China," Lin said.
On the other hand, Tsai said, some 540,000 Chinese citizens have visited Taiwan legally since Taipei adopted a more open policy toward China in the late 1980s, and there are currently around 36,000 Chinese nationals residing in Taiwan.
Chai said intelligence agencies have discovered some suspicious similarities in the backgrounds of many of these Chinese residents.
These include the fact that many of them live or have lived in the neighborhood of military compounds -- and many have registered their households under the same address.
According to Lin, the Chinese government gives its citizens "pre-departure education" before they come to Taiwan, and they also have to make a report to their government after they return to China.
This shows that China has resorted to every possible means to spy on Taiwan, Lin added.
Meanwhile, KMT legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) yesterday urged all legislators to promote secrecy and to enhance their assistants' awareness of secrecy, as national secrets may be leaked to China easily if they are not able to resist the temptation of money.
Yang confirmed that a former legislative assistant, who is allegedly spying on behalf of China, had contacted one of her former staff members early this month and asked him to help her get copies of the country's confidential budgets for foreign and cross-strait affairs.
This same former legislative assistant had also contacted other former colleagues of hers, and her office has reported the matter to the National Security Bureau for investigation, Yang said.
Chen Yen-chih (陳彥智), the director of Yang's office, who is one of the people who had been contacted by the suspect, said the former legislative assistant had offered him NT$70,000 per month for espionage services, with bonuses based on the importance of the documents collected.
Chen said he was told that the documents were to be submitted to the Taiwan Affairs Office under China's State Council.
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