A note to the unfaithful: Wary spouses are going high-tech.
Responding to popular demand among wives whose husbands frequently visit China on business, due diligence companies are marketing new mobile phone eavesdropping technology for wives to listen in on their hubbies' phone conversations there.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper), reported that Taiwanese due diligence and other private investigation companies now offer clients rigged mobile phones that seem average enough but are actually cued in to a secret receiver.
The technology allows its user in Taiwan to eavesdrop on all outgoing and incoming calls on the rigged phone, even in China.
The technology is a big leap forward from previous devices sold by Taiwanese due diligence companies: Not only can its Taiwan-based users eavesdrop on calls on phones in far-flung overseas locations, but the phone users are typically none the wiser, the report said.
Previous related technology, on the other hand, often disrupted the phone user's reception, defeating the purpose of the technology and tipping off the phone user.
When eavesdropping is not enough, many due diligence companies can ratchet up their services to include paying off Chinese police to follow a cheating Taiwanese husband and catch him, literally, with his pants down, the report added.
Most such companies now boast "adultery investigation" units for Taiwanese clients who are eager to dig up proof of their husbands' extramarital affairs in China, and the profit margins are huge.
For NT$100,000 to NT$200,000, investigators can track and photograph a cheating husband in China, employing the eyes and ears of local police when needed, the report said.
Such services often include finding out the details of the mistress, including her address and contact information, the report added.
Actual photographs of the husband with his mistress in bed come at an extra charge of somewhere between NT$200,000 to NT$500,000.
Although such services and evidence are pricey, they could prove to be a sound investment for a wife seeking a generous divorce settlement package.
Solid evidence could also result in a year of jail time and a stiff fine for the unfaithful husband in China, which has strict laws against extramarital affairs.
AGGRESSION: China’s latest intrusions set a new benchmark for its ‘gray zone’ tactics and possibly a new pattern that it would attempt to normalize, a researcher said China’s latest military exercises represent a new challenge to Taiwan’s legal authority to demarcate its borders in the Taiwan Strait, a defense expert said, adding that the fleets in the latest exercises were likely the most powerful the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ever assembled. The PLA conducted military exercises from Sunday last week to 6am on Friday, which encompassed large swathes of the western Pacific, including the Taiwan Strait and waters off the Philippines and Guam, National Policy Foundation associate research fellow Chieh Chung (揭仲) said on Friday. The Ministry of National Defense said that it detected 70 warship and 162 aircraft
DOMESTIC MARKET: To protect the livelihoods of local egg farmers, the government adopted a new method for releasing imported eggs, the agriculture minister said More than 54 million imported eggs will be disposed, as their expiration date has passed, Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said yesterday. Chen made the remarks at a news conference in Taipei, explaining the flow of imported eggs following recent controversies regarding the products. The ministry introduced a special egg import program to address a nationwide egg shortage earlier this year. However, controversies have risen in recent weeks. These included an accusation that the government helped some egg importing companies over others, eggs imported from Brazil that had an incorrect expiration date, and egg shipments from Brazil that were found
PACIFIC OCEAN: Defense experts have warned that the ‘Shandong,’ China’s second largest aircraft carrier, poses a serious threat to eastern Taiwan’s defenses The drills conducted by the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong in the Western Pacific last week were more aimed at showcasing China’s military capabilities to the US rather than toward Taiwan, a Taiwanese defense expert said yesterday. Lin Yin-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said the drills which involved dozens of warplanes sought to test China’s anti-access and area denial capabilities should the US and its allies attempt to interfere in a cross-strait conflict. Lin said that the latest Chinese drills coincided with a joint maritime exercise conducted by the US, South Korea
Thousands of bottles of Sriracha have been returned or destroyed after the discovery of excessive sulfur dioxide, a bleaching agent, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday. About 12,600 bottles totaling 9,991.8kg of the hot sauce imported from the US by Emporium Corp (河洛企業) were flagged at the border for containing illegal levels of sulfur dioxide, the FDA said in its regular border inspection announcement. Inspectors discovered 0.5g per kilogram of the common bleaching agent and preservative, higher than the 0.03g permitted, it said. As it is the first time within six months the product has been flagged, Sriracha products from