The National Security Bureau’s (NSB) work has become more important as cross-strait information warfare has intensified, bureau Director-General Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) told lawmakers on the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee yesterday as he refuted claims by a US academic that the bureau has been infiltrated by China.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator (DPP) Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) asked Chiu about the People’s Daily’s “Letter to Taiwan’s Intelligence Agencies,” which called on Taiwanese intelligence agents to “cooperate with the motherland” and not be “hijacked” by pro-independence factions.
The letter in the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper followed China Central Television (CCTV) reports earlier this month about “several hundred cases” of Taiwan’s espionage activities uncovered through Beijing’s “Thunder 2020” operation.
Photo: CNA
Chiu told lawmakers that the bureau would not respond publicly to the letter, which was the usual Chinese mix of civil and military intimidation tactics.
Asked about former US diplomat and China expert Charles Freeman’s statement that the bureau had been infiltrated from top to bottom by China, Chiu said the claim was completely false.
“No matter who it is, they must not underestimate the NSB,” he said.
The bureau has instructed its staff about appropriate conduct, and Taiwan does not need to dance to China’s tune on matters that do not concern it, Chiu later told reporters.
Asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗) about the possibility of cross-strait war in the near future, Chiu said that it was higher than normal and the bureau was considering all scenarios.
Pressed by Tseng about China applying economic or trade pressure rather than military force against Taiwan, Chiu said that it was a possibility, as China would use any means to harm Taiwan.
He would not make a prediction, he said.
As for former Mainland Affairs Council deputy minister Chao Chien-min’s (趙建民) claim that the Taiwan Strait is already in a state of quasi-war, Chiu said that tensions are obvious and the nation’s military and intelligence communities are paying close attention.
However, the public should not worry, as any Chinese movements would be closely followed by the bureau, he said.
When China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) was asked the same question on Wednesday in Beijing, she wordlessly flipped through her notes for 30 seconds before asking reporters to move on to the next question.
The incident shows that CCP spokespeople “are all robots without brains of their own,” DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
“Without authorization or information from their superiors, they do not know how to speak,” he said.
“This ‘glitch’ has shown the world that CCP leadership has not entered ‘state of quasi-war’ into its Q&A database, let alone ‘state of war,’” he added.
Additional reporting by Aaron Tu
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