Thirty Chinese military aircraft on Monday entered Taiwan’s southwestern air defense identification zone — the second-biggest single-day incursion this year.
The latest incident involved 22 fighter jets as well as electronic warfare aircraft, and anti-submarine and airborne early warning and control aircraft. They flew on a course close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) and the strategically important Bashi Channel.
As per standard practice, Taiwan’s military scrambled interceptor jets, issued radio warnings and deployed defense missile systems to track the Chinese aircraft.
Such incursions are an overt display of Beijing’s unrelenting war of attrition against Taiwan and have become a regular occurrence over the past few years amid a military buildup under the direction of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
However, a covert war, conducted in the shadows, necessarily receives far less attention, yet it is every bit as significant and just as fiercely contested.
The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday sentenced Chang Pei-ning (張培凝), a former commander of the Navy Education, Training and Doctrine Development Command, to three years and 10 months in prison for running a spy ring and recruiting several high-ranking Taiwanese naval officers.
It is a classic case of the recruitment of a retired military officer by China’s intelligence apparatus. Chang was recruited by a Chinese spy named Xie Xizhang (謝錫璋), who started visiting Taiwan in 1997 posing as a Hong Kong businessman. After retiring from the navy in 2003, Chang partnered with a friend to export timber, copper and iron ore from Africa and Indonesia to China.
Xie met Chang over a meal in 2006 during one of his trips to Taiwan. He approached Chang by facilitating his business interests, introducing him to contacts in China, including a Chinese buyer of African timber. Following several meetings with members of the Chinese Communist Party, Chang was recruited by Xie and operated as a Chinese spy for more than 13 years before his arrest in 2019.
Chang used his personal network to contact middle and high-ranking serving and retired naval officers. His first target was a serving colonel, surnamed Han (韓), who was stationed at the Political Warfare Department of Marine Corps Headquarters. Funded by Xie, Chang arranged all-expenses-paid trips to South Korea and China for Han and his wife, but failed to recruit him.
Chang was more successful with He Chung-chi (何忠技), a high-ranking officer stationed at the Navy Command Headquarters, and his wife, Chuang Hsiu-yun (莊秀雲). Chang and Xie took the couple on a two-week all-expenses-paid trip to Thailand and recruited them to help expand Xie’s spy network in the military.
Xie and Chang came unstuck in 2014 when they tried to recruit retired vice admiral Shen Po-chih (申伯之). Shen had served in a range of high-level positions and had commanded the presidential security detail. He would have possessed detailed knowledge about the inner workings of the armed forces and been a significant catch. However, Shen smelt a rat and apparently alerted the authorities.
Xie and Chang’s modus operandi is familiar: Softening up officers with drinks, meals and gifts, then ensnaring the target by paying for information. This is then used as blackmail to extract further intelligence.
In addition to likely national security breaches, the steady stream of espionage cases within the military damages morale and erodes the trust of Taiwan’s allies in the nation’s ability to defend itself.
The government must redouble its counterespionage efforts to crack down on spies and show the world that Taiwan is capable of protecting its secrets.
Taiwan-India relations appear to have been put on the back burner this year, including on Taiwan’s side. Geopolitical pressures have compelled both countries to recalibrate their priorities, even as their core security challenges remain unchanged. However, what is striking is the visible decline in the attention India once received from Taiwan. The absence of the annual Diwali celebrations for the Indian community and the lack of a commemoration marking the 30-year anniversary of the representative offices, the India Taipei Association and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, speak volumes and raise serious questions about whether Taiwan still has a coherent India
Recent media reports have again warned that traditional Chinese medicine pharmacies are disappearing and might vanish altogether within the next 15 years. Yet viewed through the broader lens of social and economic change, the rise and fall — or transformation — of industries is rarely the result of a single factor, nor is it inherently negative. Taiwan itself offers a clear parallel. Once renowned globally for manufacturing, it is now best known for its high-tech industries. Along the way, some businesses successfully transformed, while others disappeared. These shifts, painful as they might be for those directly affected, have not necessarily harmed society
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) on Monday rebuked seven Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers for stalling a special defense budget and visiting China. The legislators — including Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之) and Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) — attended an event in Xiamen, China, over the weekend hosted by the Xiamen Taiwan Businessmen Association, where they met officials from Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO). “Weng’s decision to stall the special defense budget defies majority public opinion,” Wu said, accusing KMT legislators of acting as proxies for Beijing. KMT Legislator Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), acting head of the party’s Culture and Communications
Legislators of the opposition parties, consisting of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), on Friday moved to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德). They accused Lai of undermining the nation’s constitutional order and democracy. For anyone who has been paying attention to the actions of the KMT and the TPP in the legislature since they gained a combined majority in February last year, pushing through constitutionally dubious legislation, defunding the Control Yuan and ensuring that the Constitutional Court is unable to operate properly, such an accusation borders the absurd. That they are basing this
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