Chinese Spies Expand Operations in Taiwan

DefenseNews

24 January 2015

TAIPEI — As relations continue to expand between China and Taiwan since the election of Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou in 2008, so does espionage.

With the 2009 Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, cross-strait ties have flourished. The number of Chinese visitors to the island is now around 3 million annually. The joke among many government officials in Beijing, according to media reports, is that it will be easier to buy Taiwan than invade it.

Recent cases show that China is clearly using money to coax political officials and military officers to view China as a benefactor, not an enemy. Last year alone, 15 alleged spy cases surfaced. Of those, 90 percent involved either active or retired military personnel, according to a report presented to the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee by the National Security Bureau.

…”Beijing would like to take back Kinmen, Matsu and other offshore islands only, because those islands are the legal and iconic linkages between China and Taiwan,” said Wu Shang-su, research fellow, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies for the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

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