A Chinese Ministry of State Security statement that it has “uncovered thousands of Taiwanese spying cases” is nothing more than Beijing’s latest attempt to intimidate Taiwanese, an expert on China said yesterday.
The ministry yesterday wrote on Sina Weibo that it was “resolute in carrying out the holy mandate prescribed by the central party to defend against and crush and punish efforts of espionage and infiltration against the Chinese homeland.”
It said it has “uncovered thousands of Taiwanese spying cases,” disrupted a spy network that had been established in China and arrested “Taiwanese independence leaders” such as Yang Chih-yuan (楊智淵) and others.
Photo: Screen grab from the Chinese ministry of State Security’s Sina Weibo page
The ministry did not give details about the cases or when they had been uncovered.
Hung Chin-fu (洪敬富), a political science professor at National Cheng Kung University, said he questioned the validity of the claims, as the Chinese ministry in January wrote on Sina Weibo that “national defense institutes has uncovered hundreds of Taiwanese spying cases and disrupted spy networks established by Taiwanese intelligence units.”
China’s “inflation” of Taiwanese spying cases demonstrates that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is trying to portray itself as an administration under attack, within and from abroad, Hung said.
The CCP is also equating “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists” with national security risks, he added.
Beijing’s claims that “the [CCP’s] endeavors and major achievements over the past century provide the most solid foundation for strengthening our confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics” is undermined, as its actions show that it does not have confidence or feel secure, he said.
Yang is a civilian and in Taiwan is not even considered a “Taiwan independence leader,” Hung said, adding that Yang’s arrest is an attempt by China to intimidate Taiwan.
Separately, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) said Center for China and Globalization vice president Victor Gao’s (高志凱) recent comments during an al-Jazeera interview were preposterous and unworthy of comment.
Gao told broadcaster Mehdi Hasan that “after the reunification, everyone in Taiwan need to make a pledge whether they acknowledge there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China.”
Additional reporting by Huang Ching-hsuan
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS