Berliner Boersenzeitung - Taiwan pursues homegrown Chinese spies as Beijing's influence grows

EUR -
AED 4.265501
AFN 79.959635
ALL 97.551953
AMD 444.46094
ANG 2.078392
AOA 1064.918946
ARS 1479.215873
AUD 1.786713
AWG 2.090354
AZN 1.975233
BAM 1.953542
BBD 2.336991
BDT 140.48763
BGN 1.955288
BHD 0.437871
BIF 3449.133381
BMD 1.161308
BND 1.489103
BOB 7.996758
BRL 6.445372
BSD 1.157437
BTN 99.603607
BWP 15.636284
BYN 3.787891
BYR 22761.632973
BZD 2.325003
CAD 1.595718
CDF 3351.534207
CHF 0.932877
CLF 0.029202
CLP 1120.604148
CNY 8.342492
CNH 8.343457
COP 4651.920352
CRC 584.01805
CUC 1.161308
CUP 30.774657
CVE 110.156182
CZK 24.645271
DJF 206.112842
DKK 7.462018
DOP 69.630616
DZD 151.409562
EGP 57.379284
ERN 17.419617
ETB 160.638231
FJD 2.620376
FKP 0.864967
GBP 0.865772
GEL 3.147341
GGP 0.864967
GHS 12.066081
GIP 0.864967
GMD 83.032941
GNF 10043.991577
GTQ 8.881227
GYD 242.061922
HKD 9.115094
HNL 30.291815
HRK 7.533981
HTG 151.96857
HUF 399.328456
IDR 18944.298088
ILS 3.900177
IMP 0.864967
INR 100.097538
IQD 1516.315169
IRR 48905.571821
ISK 141.783813
JEP 0.864967
JMD 185.553506
JOD 0.8234
JPY 172.733501
KES 150.04462
KGS 101.556215
KHR 4639.377052
KMF 494.137152
KPW 1045.141109
KRW 1618.642786
KWD 0.354977
KYD 0.964555
KZT 618.16467
LAK 24960.557705
LBP 103709.044296
LKR 348.828414
LRD 232.070749
LSL 20.725305
LTL 3.42904
LVL 0.702464
LYD 6.294673
MAD 10.488378
MDL 19.676732
MGA 5174.798967
MKD 61.541866
MMK 2437.556121
MNT 4164.759726
MOP 9.357836
MRU 46.04312
MUR 53.082892
MVR 17.879229
MWK 2006.982842
MXN 21.792402
MYR 4.929731
MZN 74.276675
NAD 20.725305
NGN 1771.993034
NIO 42.597187
NOK 11.948638
NPR 159.3642
NZD 1.951822
OMR 0.446525
PAB 1.157262
PEN 4.106079
PGK 4.863112
PHP 66.422174
PKR 329.753675
PLN 4.258234
PYG 8959.149725
QAR 4.220231
RON 5.073642
RSD 117.113188
RUB 90.582059
RWF 1663.328239
SAR 4.35601
SBD 9.637515
SCR 17.053094
SDG 697.364694
SEK 11.299313
SGD 1.492652
SHP 0.912606
SLE 26.53569
SLL 24352.048595
SOS 661.435212
SRD 42.831338
STD 24036.726887
SVC 10.128082
SYP 15099.146569
SZL 20.721174
THB 37.684499
TJS 11.065269
TMT 4.07619
TND 3.409132
TOP 2.719903
TRY 46.891722
TTD 7.857306
TWD 34.174385
TZS 3026.120791
UAH 48.456698
UGX 4146.921328
USD 1.161308
UYU 46.823745
UZS 14790.516583
VES 135.832348
VND 30378.650865
VUV 138.934041
WST 3.205365
XAF 655.298379
XAG 0.030462
XAU 0.000348
XCD 3.138492
XDR 0.814981
XOF 655.298379
XPF 119.331742
YER 280.281768
ZAR 20.698338
ZMK 10453.163779
ZMW 27.055274
ZWL 373.940639
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Taiwan pursues homegrown Chinese spies as Beijing's influence grows
Taiwan pursues homegrown Chinese spies as Beijing's influence grows / Photo: I-Hwa Cheng - AFP/File

Taiwan pursues homegrown Chinese spies as Beijing's influence grows

Taiwan is vetting hundreds of thousands of military service members, public school teachers and civil servants in a bid to root out potential homegrown Chinese sympathisers, as Beijing intensifies espionage on the island.

Text size:

Alarm is growing in Taiwan over the extent of China's infiltration on the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims is part of its territory and has threatened to seize by force.

Prosecutors last week charged four recently expelled members of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party -- including a former staffer in President Lai Ching-te's office -- for sharing state secrets with Beijing.

While Taipei and Beijing have spied on each other for decades, analysts warn the threat to Taiwan is more serious given the risk of a Chinese attack.

The main targets of Chinese infiltration have been retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology.

Lai, an outspoken defender of Taiwan's sovereignty and loathed by Beijing, has branded China a "foreign hostile force" and sought to raise public awareness about Chinese actions he says threaten national security.

After a sharp rise in the number of people prosecuted for spying for China in recent years, the government is trying to identify people within its own departments, military and public schools with a possible allegiance to Beijing.

Anyone on the public service payroll found with Chinese residence or other identification cards risks losing their Taiwanese household registration, effectively their citizenship.

"The reason we started to survey (for Chinese IDs) is because China uses this way to coerce Taiwanese people, to penetrate our system, especially the public service," DPP lawmaker Wang Ting-yu told AFP.

"The threat is getting worse and worse and we have to deal with that."

- 'Cleanse the population' -

In the first round held recently, 371,203 people, or nearly all of those surveyed, signed statements declaring they did not hold any Chinese ID documents prohibited by Taiwanese law.

Two people admitted having Chinese ID cards and 75 having residence permits, which were annulled, Taiwan's top policy body on China, the Mainland Affairs Council, said.

The second round of vetting is underway, but the government has said the general public will not be targeted.

Concern over Taiwanese people holding Chinese ID documents flared after a YouTube video last year alleged there were tens of thousands of cases.

A senior Taiwanese security official said recently China was issuing ID papers to a growing number of people from Taiwan, but it was "difficult to estimate" how many or track down offenders without Beijing's cooperation.

"The idea is to define Taiwanese citizens as Chinese citizens under their legal framework," the official said.

Legal scholar Su Yen-tu said there were limits on the government's "investigatory power" to find out who held Chinese ID cards in Taiwan.

If Taiwanese people did not voluntarily disclose the information, "there's not much the government can do," said Su, a research professor at Academia Sinica.

Collecting records was still "potentially useful", Jamestown Foundation president Peter Mattis told AFP, particularly if someone under investigation in the future is found to have lied about their documents.

Taiwan has also asked around 10,000 Chinese spouses and their China-born children for proof they have given up their Chinese household registration, a decades-old requirement under Taiwanese law.

- 'It's a fight every day' -

The notices sparked criticism that the government was being heavyhanded, but Wang said stricter enforcement was needed because some "new immigrants" from China had spied for Beijing and interfered in Taiwan's elections.

"I personally feel that it's a bit disturbing for the people," said Li I-ching, a 23-year-old graduate student in Taipei, who was born in China to a Chinese mother and a Taiwanese father.

Like many others, Li has to obtain evidence from China that she no longer holds permanent residence status.

The Beijing-friendly main opposition Kuomintang party (KMT) has accused the government of conducting "loyalty" tests.

"At a time when our country is facing so many difficulties... the government is only thinking about how to cleanse the population," said KMT lawmaker Chen Yu-jen.

The dispute between Taiwan and China dates back to 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist forces lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong's communist fighters and fled to the island.

China has vowed to annex Taiwan and in recent years has ramped up its military pressure on the island.

Taiwan says China also uses disinformation, cyberattacks and espionage to weaken its defences.

"It's a fight every day for the Taiwanese against this sort of stuff," said Mark Harrison, a senior lecturer in Chinese studies at the University of Tasmania.

"I think their democracy has tremendous integrity, but it does have to be defended, and when you defend something, it certainly generates a lot of discourse, a lot of debate."

(T.Burkhard--BBZ)