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
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