Taiwanese judge Hsu Kai-hsieh (許凱傑) yesterday briefed the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) on China’s six major methods of infiltrating Taiwan, calling for counterintelligence collaboration between Taiwan and the US.
It was the first time that Hsu, a Taipei District Court judge focusing on national security, was invited to brief the CECC.
The CECC was founded by the US Congress in October 2000 to monitor human rights and the development of rule of law in China. It is required to submit an annual report to the US president and Congress.
Photo: AFP
Hsu said in an interview with the Central News Agency that his closed-door briefing to an audience of about 20 congressional staff members and chiefs of staff focused on China’s use of legal warfare to legitimize aggressive actions against Taiwan and justify its “gray zone” tactics, as well as its six main infiltration methods.
China’s infiltration targets range from government officials and ordinary citizens to military generals and common soldiers, Hsu said, adding that its six major infiltration methods are espionage, infiltrating organizations, dividing society, technology leaks, interfering with elections and “gray zone” tactics.
China mostly infiltrates hometown and alumni associations and recruits borough chiefs to lead residents on tours to China, Hsu said.
It also sends spies to infiltrate Taiwan’s political parties, seeking to divide Taiwanese society, he said.
In terms of technology, China uses companies backed by Chinese capital to try to control Taiwan’s technology industry and sends spies to specific enterprises to steal their technology, Hsu said.
Regarding its “gray zone” tactics, cases of Taiwan’s subsea communication cables being tampered with would only become more frequent, Hsu said.
International coordination, including reporting and pursuing suspicious vessels, is crucial to maintaining communication infrastructure, he said.
In 2022, 28 people were prosecuted in Taiwan for Chinese infiltration activities, while 86 were prosecuted in 2023 and 168 last year, Hsu said.
His invitation to brief the CECC shows that the US is paying attention to this issue, Hsu said, adding that Taiwan and the US could cooperate on counterintelligence training to reduce cases of espionage in Taiwan.
Emphasizing the importance of defensive democracy, Hsu said insufficient regulation would result in infiltration by authoritarianism, while excessive regulation would result in a dictatorship.
During his five-day trip to Washington, Hsu on Wednesday also attended the annual symposium of the Global Taiwan Institute.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS