By J. Michael Cole
Just how bad is Taiwan’s spy problem?
The optics couldn’t be worse — four Taiwanese military officers, including an Air Force pilot, a lieutenant colonel and a former Army major general, indicted on charges of belonging to a spy ring led by a Chinese intelligence officer. Oh, and the owner of a karaoke club, to boot. The January 16 indictments, which follow the arrest in September last year of Zhen Xiaojiang, the Chinese handler who was also indicted, are but the latest in a string of arrests on espionage charges in recent years. 15 cases were uncovered in 2014 alone. Has the Taiwanese security apparatus been completely penetrated by Chinese spies, as some analysts have been arguing?
Maybe, but the extent to which systems and people have been compromised is anyone’s guess. The People’s Liberation Army is particularly interested in establishing a complete picture of Taiwan’s C4ISR architecture, radar and air defense systems, as well as war preparedness plans, a focus that has been confirmed through the string of arrests over the years, including the latest case. Despite warming ties between Taiwan and China since 2008, espionage efforts against the island-nation never abated; in fact, substantially increased contact between the two sides created a wealth of opportunities for intelligence collection and source recruitment by China.
The PLA’s rationale for stealing secrets from Taiwan is self-evident: Beijing does not recognize the existence of Taiwan as a sovereign state and regards it instead as a province awaiting “re-unification,” by force if necessary. Despite views to the contrary, Taiwan remains a so-called “core interest” of Beijing, and President Xi Jinping has stated that he hopes to resolve the Taiwan “issue” during his term. It goes without saying that if force were used to resolve the “issue” — that is, preventing a permanent state of division through the de jure independence of Taiwan — the Chinese military would seek to exploit the weaknesses in Taiwan’s defense establishment. To be able to do so, it must gather intelligence, recruit agents, and have sources in the many agencies that would play a role in a military contingency.
So of course Taiwan has a serious spy problem on its hands! It was, is, and will remain an intelligence priority for the Chinese.
Read the full story at The Diplomat