An alleged intelligence operation to recruit Chinese university students in Taiwan was the hot topic of discussion at the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee yesterday.
China’s Global Times, a unit of the People’s Daily, an official government mouthpiece, on Monday published a report showing photographs of three alleged Taiwanese spies, with their dates of birth and their ID numbers. It accused them of recruiting Chinese students at several Taiwanese universities.
In a follow-up report, Taiwan’s Storm Media said the three Taiwanese agents were Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) officers.
At the committee meeting yesterday, Minister of National Defense Yen Ming (嚴明) faced a barrage of questions on matters related to the alleged espionage activities, as the ministry tabled its budget report on military spending and program proposals for next year.
Yen declined to comment on the Global Times report and refused to confirm whether the three named individuals worked for the MIB.
Yen instead stressed that “the defense ministry will give its total respect to academic freedom on campus, we will not interfere in them.”
Regarding the work conducted by the bureau, Yen said that the MIB’s task is to collect intelligence for the needs of national security, and that the work is carried out in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法).
Legislators from both the pan-green and pan-blue camps during the meeting yesterday said the intelligence bureau was botching the job and embarrassing itself in the process, as legislators with access to classified information hinted that the report contained a measure of truth.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said that for the purposes of national security, it could be viable to recruit Chinese students, “however, the MIB’s conduct was clumsy in this case and its methods were anachronistic.”
“Now that the operation has been exposed by the Chinese media, even I feel humiliated. It is an embarrassment for the world to see,” he added.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Chi-chen (江啟臣) said that the MIB has an annual budget of NT$1.3 billion (US$42.8 million), yet it made a shambles of the espionage work.
“The defense ministry must conduct a thorough review into this matter. It is just too embarrassing,” he said.
In other news, Yen denied a local media report that production of the locally developed Wan Chien (萬劍, “Ten Thousand Swords”) cluster bombs and other weapons development plans have been reduced due to pressure from the government amid warming Taiwan-China ties.
Yen said his ministry always makes decisions in line with the military’s combat needs, and there was no “pressure” regarding the Wan Chien cluster bombs.
The Wan Chien cluster bombs, developed and produced by the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, can be carried by the locally developed Indigenous Defense Fighter, one of Taiwan’s main combat aircraft.
Additional reporting by CNA
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