The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau has established a third-party review committee to investigate the possible infiltration of Taiwanese organizations by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), sources said last week.
The bureau first proposed the formation of the committee two years ago, saying that the CCP was diversifying its tactics to infiltrate Taiwan, making it harder to identify the source of such efforts and to make arrests, sources said.
“The CCP is increasingly using Taiwan’s democracy and freedoms to its advantage in infiltrating Taiwan’s organizations,” bureau Director-General Chen Pai-li (陳白立) said on July 4 while speaking to lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Citing examples of the CCP’s methods, Chen said it uses Taiwanese to help it recruit people and to spy in Taiwan; engages in actions that influence the outcome of Taiwan’s elections and cognitive warfare to undermine the credibility of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party; initiates cyberattacks on sensitive systems in Taiwan; poaches talent and steals industry secrets from Taiwanese companies; manipulates Taiwanese under the guise of engaging in cultural exchanges; and provides benefits and concessions to Taiwanese who act on its behalf.
However, when cases go to trial in Taiwan, they often result in acquittals, a source said on Sunday last week.
The bureau has been reviewing the cases and trying to determine whether the acquittals are due to judges’ misunderstanding of the cases or a lack of evidence for prosecution, the source said.
“It’s usually hard to prove that the CCP is behind spying activity. The defendant would normally deny the connection, and of course we cannot ask China for evidence,” they said.
Tying the cash flow in such cases to China is also difficult, as the CCP seeks conceal its involvement by moving money through underground exchanges, virtual currencies and other methods that are difficult to trace, they said.
The bureau has sought to solve the issue by establishing a third-party case review committee with the National Security Bureau, the Mainland Affairs Council and the Military Intelligence Bureau, among other agencies, they said.
Senior prosecutors believe that the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) does not need to be revised to pursue spying cases, but rather that prosecutors need clearer targets, such as those set during election periods, which prohibit certain exchanges with China, the source said.
“If the Ministry of Justice, the Central Election Commission and other government agencies set clear targets like that, then we know what to go after,” they said.
To facilitate Taiwanese exchanges with people in China that do not contravene the law, authorities should set clear timelines for such exchanges ahead of elections and should encourage Taiwanese to reject invitations from China that would conflict with regulations, Taipei prosecutor Lin Ta (林達) said.
Different timelines for exchanges should also be set according to the scale of the election, he said.
For example, restrictions are in place 10 months prior to presidential elections, he added.
“I believe that as long as the laws are clear, people will be less likely to contravene them,” he said.
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