The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday held a mandatory party meeting on preventing Chinese espionage and invited officials to present seminars on infiltration tactics.
Given recent cases of Chinese agents penetrating the nation’s political circles, DPP officials have started a series of lectures at its party headquarters.
The first to be invited was Foundation on Asia-Pacific Peace Studies executive director Tung Li-wen (董立文).
Photo courtesy of the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters via CNA
The theme of Tung’s lecture was: “Be alert on Chinese infiltration and ‘united front’ tactics.”
He presented real-life cases and analyzed types of Chinese espionage and propaganda aimed at Taiwan and other countries, and assessed what Beijing sought to achieve in the long term.
Beijing has been using six main “conduits” to carry out espionage and infiltration activities in Taiwan — namely family and relatives of targets, gangsters and organized crime syndicates, financial investment circles, businesses and industries, temples, and grassroots groups and friends — while applying coercion and bribery, Tung said.
“Beijing’s ‘united front’ tactics are never just ‘Let us have dinner together and make friends.’ They approach you with the intent to divide and conquer, sow doubt and discord, and then to sabotage and undermine you and your party,” Tung said.
“All party members must have better awareness, and more sensitivity and comprehension of China’s cross-strait policies and objectives. They must also must enhance their own protection and have the staunch will to safeguard Taiwan,” he added.
DPP China Affairs Director Wu Chun-chih (吳峻鋕) after the lecture urged all political parties to protect Taiwan against enemy forces, and called for society to organize an all-civilian defense and to raise the alarm for threats to the nation’s existence.
“We hope to see the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and Taiwan People’s Party take concrete actions to counter Chinese espionage and infiltration. Instead of doing nothing and ‘playing dead,’ we ask these two parties not to collude with the enemy state,” Wu said.
DPP deputy secretary-general Ho Po-wen (何博文) said that the espionage cases involving four DPP personnel are now entering the judicial process.
“We shall respect the outcome of the investigation and prosecution, and have followed internal regulations to nullify their party membership. We are taking proactive ways to start intraparty lectures to guard against infiltration, and to apply stricter measures, as the DPP has a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on members who risk national security,” Ho said.
“In comparison, the KMT has done nothing about their party’s Chinese infiltration and espionage cases and made no progress on their promises, while shifting blame on others. KMT legislators are even blocking the DPP’s bills to bolster national security measures, and moved to block military spending budget,” he added.
The DPP would plan a national security education series at local levels, and organize for open public lectures and seminars “for society to have sharper awareness and comprehensive understanding on how to interpret China, so that people would become more alert and not fall into Chinese espionage and infiltration traps,” Ho said.
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