Remote sensing scientist Chen Kun-shan (陳錕山) was not involved in any sensitive research projects in Taiwan before he defected to China, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
Chen, head of the Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research at National Central University (NCU) since 2001, disappeared in September last year. He is now working at China’s State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science under Beijing’s high-profile “Thousand Talents Program,” which seeks to attract overseas scientists.
In a front-page story yesterday, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) cited an intelligence source as saying that Chen’s defection posed a “serious threat” to Taiwan’s national security.
Photo: Hsieh Wen-hua, Taipei Times
As head of the center, Chen had access to satellite images covering Taiwan and China’s military deployments, and was in a category of government employees with access to state secrets and restricted from visiting China, the report said.
However, Ministry of Defense spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) yesterday said that Chen had undertaken research projects commissioned by the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST, 中山科學研究院) and the ministry’s Communications Development Office, all of which were academic in nature and unrelated to key military technologies.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Education Secretary-General Wang Tsuo-tai (王作台) said that Chen was suspended by the university in November last year, two months after he went absent without leave.
Wang said the university learned through Chinese media reports in March that Chen had been hired to work at State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science.
The reports were later verified with Beijing through the Mainland Affairs Council, he added.
The university confirmed yesterday that it had decided on April 7 to dismiss Chen and had submitted his case to the Ministry of Education for final approval.
Kainan University vice president David Huang (黃適卓) yesterday lambasted Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧), accusing the education ministry of failing to implement proper preventive mechanisms on cross-strait academic interaction.
Huang said Chiang should take full responsibility for what he described as a “national security fiasco” and step down, as Chuang had been instrumental in promoting the disloyal Chen to his position at the NCU center.
Huang said China has long coveted Taiwanese technology and has been using the guise of academic interaction to implement its “united front” rhetoric.
Huang said that China is still absorbing what it can of Taiwan’s academic research, especially in nanotechnology, agricultural sciences and husbandry, and information technology, in which Taiwan has made significant advances.
Cooperation between academia and the military has a long history, and many military projects have sought the participation of educators, Huang said, adding that these professors have been targeted by Chinese intelligence for contact.
Before both sides of the Taiwan Strait agreed to academic exchanges, contacting Taiwanese academics had been the job of Taiwanese businesspeople in China, Huang said, adding that after academic exchanges were approved, China has used that channel to contact educators directly.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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