The accusations against former Mainland Affairs Council deputy minister Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), that he leaked state secrets to China, have left the public questioning the legitimacy of the government.
Anybody in battle protects their strategy with utmost confidentiality and do all they can to obtain their opponent’s classified information, to avoid defeat or becoming dependent on their adversary because they are unprepared — the President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration is an exception.
Undercover operations and espionage have always been just as influential in victory as armed combat, as was the case during the Chinese Civil War between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Many of the memoirs that were released after the war evidenced this.
Cross-strait relations are often touted as a “friendship and peaceful interaction between brothers,” but the intelligence war has never ceased, or at least this holds true for China. Therefore, the discovery of a spy should come as no surprise.
This is why, when the US assigns senior officials to office, these officials must first go through a long series of strict and detailed security checks.
However, Taiwan does not seem to have such a mechanism in place and all sorts of gaps exist in its national defense. It is obvious that governmental organizations have been infiltrated at the highest levels and there is now a risk that cross-strait negotiations simply amount to a dialogue between CCP spies and CCP officials.
Few people have noticed that not only governmental organizations, but also civic groups are major targets for such infiltration. A great fear of all civic groups and democracy movements, including the opposition parties, is that nobody joins them and therefore they welcome just about anyone.
Based on long-term experience and observation, I believe that all civic groups, including the nation’s political parties, have been infiltrated by KMT and CCP spies up to the highest levels. These agents constantly fabricate issues to stir up meaningless debate and infighting and harm solidarity and unity, thus ensuring that official affairs cannot proceed smoothly.
This is an alarming development and only those with superhuman intellect and force of character can quickly and effectively put an end to all the damage that is occurring.
Peng Ming-min is a former presidential adviser.
Translated by Drew Cameron
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has long wielded influence through the power of words. Her articles once served as a moral compass for a society in transition. However, as her April 1 guest article in the New York Times, “The Clock Is Ticking for Taiwan,” makes all too clear, even celebrated prose can mislead when romanticism clouds political judgement. Lung crafts a narrative that is less an analysis of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality than an exercise in wistful nostalgia. As political scientists and international relations academics, we believe it is crucial to correct the misconceptions embedded in her article,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
RSS