The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) infiltration efforts against Taiwan have intensified, with targets varying from the military to the general public, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a news release yesterday.
The council cited judicial data and information from judge Hsu Kai-hsieh (許凱傑) of the Taipei District Court’s National Security Division.
The CPP uses six known methods to infiltrate Taiwan: intelligence leaks, organizational infiltration, social division, technology-related leaks, election interference and “gray zone” operations, the release said.
Photo: Screen grab from the MAC’s Facebook page
Some members of the military were coerced into handing over classified information after mistakenly signing a “surrender agreement,” the MAC said.
The main methods of organizational infiltration involve using hometown and alumni associations, and using borough leaders’ tour groups to penetrate local communities, the council said.
China has also sent spies to infiltrate political parties in Taiwan to divide Taiwanese society, it added.
The council said that the CCP aims to infiltrate Taiwan’s tech industry through China-funded enterprises or by sending spies to steal core technologies.
As for election interference methods, the council said they occur mostly during election periods, but are difficult to prove.
“Gray zone” operations such as the destruction of Taiwan’s undersea cables have been increasing, MAC said.
How the international community coordinates and divides responsibilities — including reporting and pursuing suspicious vessels — is crucial for safeguarding communication infrastructure, Hsu said in the release.
In 2022, 28 people in Taiwan were charged with activities connected to Chinese infiltration, while the number was 86 in 2023 and last year it nearly doubled to 168, the council said.
The figures showed the CCP’s infiltration of Taiwan has intensified, with targets including high-level officials, military commanders, as well as lower-ranking officers and servicemembers, the release said.
Last month, Hsu briefed the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) in the US about China’s legal warfare and its efforts to infiltrate Taiwan.
The CECC is an independent commission established in October 2000, responsible for monitoring China’s human rights conditions and the development of the rule of law. The commission is required to submit an annual report to the US president and US Congress.
In response to media queries at the time, Hsu said that the US Foreign Agents Registration Act is a good model for Taiwan, and that Taipei and Washington can also cooperate in counterintelligence training to eliminate espionage cases in Taiwan.
The concept of defensive democracy is very important, he said, adding that “too little regulation allows authoritarian infiltration, while too much turns into another form of dictatorship.”
Taiwan can provide case studies and work with other democratic countries to improve national security and the rule of law for democracies in the new era.
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