PRC Spy or Clumsy Tourist?

One year when I was in India, long before I ever came to Taiwan, a friend of mine and I took a boat ride through the harbor of Bombay (ironically there was a Taiwanese film crew on board compiling an India travelogue). As the boat crossed the harbor, the guide indicated a direction and said we couldn't photograph off to that side. I took that as an invitation and immediately took several photographs....

The Taipei Times reported today that a PRC citizen who took photos at a military base in Taipei was arrested. AFP reported that he had been released, but the Taipei Times report said he had been taken into custody....

Military police had detained the tourist, Ma Zhongfei (馬中飛), chairman of a high-tech company in China, for taking photos of military property at the Armed Forces Recruitment Center in Taipei. He was placed under arrest late on Monday night and detained for questioning.

Taipei prosecutors said they transferred the case to the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors’ Office at midnight on Monday because the case fell under the High Court’s jurisdiction.

Prosecutor Tseng Chiun-che (曾俊哲) yesterday took Ma back to the recruitment center to question him about the exact locations where he had taken photos and where he had aimed his camera.

This would be important in determining Ma’s reasons for taking the photos, prosecutors said.

Ma told prosecutors that he came to Taiwan on a nine-day tour and had planned to return to China today.

He left his tour group on Monday afternoon saying he was going to Sindian (新店) in Taipei County to pay his respects to a deceased Taiwanese friend. As he traveled along Keelung Road, he stopped at the recruitment center and took some pictures.

There's a story going around that the firm that invited him is just an empty desk, but I haven't been able to confirm it. It doesn't really seem believable that a PRC spy could be so clumsy. The real threat isn't from tourists taking photos of facilities, but from PRC sabotage experts, prostitutes, gangsters, and the like. The PRC already has much better information on Taiwan's defense network than any tourist photos could provide -- although it is true that lax security at Taiwan's military facilities is often identified by outsiders as a signficant problem. As Lawrence Eyton wrote seven years ago....

It also follows the release of an alarming statistic by the Ministry of National Defense according to which more than 3,000 former Taiwan military officers are now either doing business or working in "consultancies" in mainland China.

And of course, at least one of the political parties on Taiwan has formed an alliance with the CCP...

UPDATE: J Michael has an awesome post on this. Note that the alleged tourist has been released on his own recognizance and is free to return to China.

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

China Survelliance Net to Extend Across the Strait

J Michael Cole, former intelligence analyst, has a great piece in the Taipei Times today pointing out the problems with the stake that China Mobile has taken in Far EasTone....

While a 12 percent minority stake in a firm may appear innocuous, the target sector — telecommunications — is a sensitive one, as it touches on matters of individual liberties and freedom of expression. In democratic countries, intelligence agencies must obtain a warrant before they can intercept someone’s conversations on mobile phones, land lines or via electronic means of communication such as the Internet.

.........

No country today has refined the art of control and seizure of communication more than China, which relentlessly polices Internet chat rooms, phone conversations, e-mail, video content and SMS exchanges, as well as more traditional media such as print, radio and TV, doing so both preemptively — that is, to prevent individuals from making certain claims, or “leaking” information that is assessed as “secret” — and post-facto as evidence of subversion or “splittism.”

These efforts come in many guises, from cute cartoon reminders on Web sites and state-owned portals establishing the parameters of what users are allowed to say, to worryingly intrusive spyware targeting specific dissident groups within China and abroad, as was recently exposed in the Tracking GhostNet report.

It is with this in mind that China Mobile’s proposed investment in Taiwan’s third-largest telecoms service provider, which has a 25.5 percent share of the market of about 24.7 million subscribers, is so worrying. The problem does not lie with a Chinese company buying a stake in the Taiwanese firm, but the fact that the Chinese government has a 67.5 percent share in China Mobile. Not only does this mean that part of the NT$17.77 billion (US$528 million) investment would come from Chinese state coffers, but it would leave the door open for the introduction of Chinese individuals on the board of directors at Far EasTone.

Through this and by dint of further investments in the company, human-to-human contact, sharing of corporate data and electronic exchanges, the Chinese government could, if it chose, gain access to subscriber information (overtly or covertly) and thereby facilitate electronic surveillance of Taiwanese citizens. The implication is that the Chinese government could now monitor Taiwanese dissidents — or independence advocates — with far greater ease.

What makes this proposed investment doubly troubling is China Mobile’s chairman, Wang Jianzhou (王建宙), who during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year, raised eyebrows after revealing with disquieting nonchalance the extent of the personal data his company had on Chinese subscribers as well as the willingness of his company to provide personal subscriber information to Chinese authorities on request. Although Wang has since 1999 worked in the private sector, his ties to the Chinese government include positions as technology director in the Zhe­jiang government, director-general of the posts and telecommunications bureau in Hangzhou, director-general of the planning and construction department at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and director-general of the general planning department at the Ministry of Information Industry.

As J Michael notes, once China has its foot in the door, there is no doubt that China Mobile's stake will be used against Taiwan citizens.

One reason that is so is because Taiwan is already classified as an "endemic surveillance society" by Privacy International, and has one of the worst international records. There is nothing in the Taiwan experience to suggest there will be resistance to a China presence in Taiwan's surveillance networks. Note that the presence of Chinese personnel at Far EasTone at some point, implied by the deal, means that China will not merely be able monitor dissidence in all its forms, but also to intercept corporate and private business data. Forbes.com offers this article on China from last year:

McIndoe says the tracking usually begins with the temporary confiscation of a laptop, cellphone or PDA at customs. If this happens, consider it a "virtual guarantee" that its contents will copied, including everything from sensitive call lists to clues on how to infiltrate a network back home. Calls and text messages can also be remotely monitored, particularly if a key word like Tibet or Falun Gong has triggered the surveillance system.

Safest Bets
Unfortunately, cellphones or PDAs purchased outside of China are not immune to eavesdropping. Once a call or text goes through the country's cellphone towers, it may be picked up by authorities. McIndoe's advice is to leave these devices at home or wipe them clean of information before arriving. In some cases, employers keep sanitized loaner laptops on hand for this purpose. Either way, devices should be professionally scanned for bugs if they return to the U.S.

Though it may seem safer, e-mailing from an Internet cafe is the worst alternative. These are aggressively monitored by authorities interested in browsing and e-mailing activities. McIndoe warns that log-in usernames and passwords are easily captured and that accessing a virtual private network from a cafe or any wi-fi hotspot can expose the system to malicious software. Exercise caution about accessing e-mail accounts and be sure to change logins upon returning home.

Another article today noted that KMT and DPP legislators were criticizing the deal:

The unexpected move incurred criticism from lawmakers on the Transportation Committee. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said the announcement had been made to cause speculation on the markets. Lo claimed that Far Eastern Group had been able to boost its total market value to NT$94.3 billion following the announcement.

“[The announcement] is intended to cheat and lie to individual investors in the stock market so they will invest in the company,” Lo said. “But the NCC have done nothing about it.”

Lo said the maximum penalty of NT$600,000 for violating the Act Governing Relations between peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) meant nothing to the company.

Peng said the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) remained the nation’s highest authority when approving Chinese investment in the telecommunications industry. The NCC was only planning to allow Chinese investment in second-category telecoms carriers, not first-category carriers, she said.

The Telecommunications Act (電信法) states that first category businesses hold licenses allowing them to construct networks and offer services, whereas second category firms can only lease networks to offer services.

“Chinese firms are prohibited from investing in telecommunication services,” Peng said, adding that the MAC is canvasing suggestions from different administrative authorities to formulate a list of industries in which Chinese firms would be allowed to invest.

Peng said the NCC has asked Far EasTone to brief the commission about the investment on Monday. The firm’s representative assured the commissioners that so far it had yet to receive any investment from China Mobile.

In other words, Far EasTone's China funding inflow is simply one manifestation of the fundamental problem of large firm disregard for the law in Taiwan, and of the government's reluctance to pass meaningful legislation and to make meaningful the existing legal framework. Does anyone really believe that in this context of legal ambiguity and regulatory impotence, China Mobile will be blocked from accessing Taiwan subscriber data and from listening in to calls?
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Daily Links

• Echo Taiwan found this bird's eye view of the attack on protesters at the temple in Tainan earlier this week.
• Exports continue to fall.
• Understanding China's external portfolio from the CFR.
• US Committee of 100 on China meeting on CSPAN. US experts apparently think Taiwan's democracy gives Ma the right to sell out the island to China. They can go right on claiming that to each other as long as the Taiwanese remain in paralyzed somnabulence.

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Keeping your friends close....

Peter Pan: There oughta be a fairy for every girl and boy.
Wendy: Oughta be? Isn't there?
Peter Pan: Oh, no. Children know such a lot now. Soon they don't believe. And every time a child says "I don't believe in fairies", there's a fairy someplace that falls down dead.

Apologies for the light blogging, but with Lunar New Year over, I've been busy. Also apologies for the lack of new pics; Flickr's latest uploader version sets new standards for sucky, and they haven't done the intelligent thing and made prior versions -- which actually worked even if they were wonky -- available again. The freeware uploader I downloaded doesn't work either, and I don't have time for manual processing at the moment. But expect eye candy, foodporn, and plenty of lovely Taiwan countryside up on the blog shortly....links tomorrow, and with spring in the air, spider pics.

Life is good.

....meanwhile, everyone can enjoy a good belly laugh at the expense of those who claim that Taiwan should move closer to China in the name of competitiveness, unification, or whatever ideology of power legitimates the selling out of Taiwan in their minds. Reuters reports today that China, the Kingdom of the Benevolent Panda Givers Filled With Genuine Love For Taiwan, was busy blackmailing Taiwanese officials and turning them into spies....

Four civil servants on trips to China were filmed in hostess lounges and then blackmailed into becoming informants for Beijing, Taiwan Justice Ministry spokesman Luo Chi-wang said. He did not say what has happened to them since being uncovered.

Another 36 conducted themselves in "inappropriate ways" with Chinese officials, he said without elaborating.

China's Taiwan Affairs Council said it did not know about the case and could not comment.

And the KMT's foreign policy is to "move closer" to this colossus that wants to eat Taiwan. Brilliant. The Taipei Times has a feature out today as well on conditions in China for Taiwan businesspeople -- including inducements for them to return, which businessmen are not all that interested in (catch the contradiction between moving closer to China and encouraging businessmen to return to Taiwan?). With $200 billion invested there, and no economic boom here, maybe it is time to diversify our investments to other nations less inimical to our freedom. No other nation that borders on China has opened so widely to it, and no other nation is predicted to take as hard a hit this year. There's a lesson in there somewhere.....

I do believe in pandas... I do believe in pandas... I do believe in pandas...

The story broke on the heels of another case of Chinese spies in Taiwan, this time in the Presidential office, where one Wang Ren-bing (王仁炳), was busted for spying for China.

The good Mr. Wang actually has a bit of a history. FTV notes:

He is not a stranger to controversy, having been indicted, but not convicted, on corruption charges as a staffer in Taipei's Department of Education in 1995. During his time in the Presidential Office, he was censured by the Control Yuan for his involvement in a campus construction project scandal. Now, he is a major suspect in a spy case.

Wang was brought into the Presidential office by Chen Che-nan in 2001. Yes, that's right, apparently a man indicted once and censured once for corruption was the only man in a nation of 23 million people who could do that job. Another brilliant pick by the DPP. No wonder China made a beeline for him.

I do believe in pandas... I do believe in pandas... I do believe in pandas...

The Reuters story also comes as past and current presidents of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute (AEI) warned that China's intentions are inimical to Taiwan at a seminar yesterday:

He suggested that the Taiwan government takes advantage of all opportunities to build closer ties with Beijing, but to be also very wary of China's intentions to do things that are harmful and would restrict Taiwan's freedom.

"I think he (Ma) is highly cognizant of the reality of the kind of the government that exists over there, " DeMuth said when asked whether he thinks Ma is aware of the PRC's intentions.

"I think that he has no intention of letting his country fall under the sway of a government such as that," added the respected scholar who served as AEI president for 22 years.

Asked whether the AEI is concerned about the Ma administration leaning too much toward China by entering into a truce with Beijing to end the long-standing diplomatic tug-of-war between the two sides as some critics and the opposition parties have charged, DeMuth said that the AEI is not concerned about that.

Brooks said that positions are not important, but rather principles are, and that is the basis of successful diplomacy. He added that the government needs to bear in mind what Taiwan wants, noting that according to Ma, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and everybody else, "peace, prosperity and freedom" are the goals.

If only Ma were making policy toward China, discussions of his preferences might actually make sense....

I do believe in pandas... I do believe in pandas... I do believe in pandas...

Hillary Clinton heads out this week to confer, confab, and otherwise hobnob with the elites in Beijing, with FAPA asking Clinton to avoid making deals with China that come at the expense of Taiwan.

FAPA has written to Clinton stressing the “erosion of democracy and justice in Taiwan” and charging that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has failed to protect the nation’s interests and sovereignty during negotiations with China.

The letter says: “We understand that in the near future you will travel to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China. In exchange for its cooperation on climate change issues, the [Chinese] government will undoubtedly attempt to whittle away the support from the United States for Taiwan as mandated in the Taiwan Relations Act, which was passed three decades ago.”

It adds: “We urge you to stand up for the basic principles of human rights and democracy, and impress upon the government in Beijing that it should accept Taiwan as a friendly neighbor. Peace and stability in East Asia can only be maintained if the people of Taiwan have a free and open choice on their future, as stipulated in the principle of self-determination enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.”

The first suggestion that Beijing might try to make a deal on climate change at Taiwan’s expense appeared in the Washington Post last week.

“Some experts warn that China may demand a freer hand on such contentious issues as Taiwan and Tibet in exchange for working with the United States on reducing emissions,” the newspaper said.

China expert Bonnie Glaser, generally a reliable guide to what the Establishment thinks, predicts that Clinton won't talk to China much about human rights (what, you expected that to be different?):

Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at CSIS, expected Clinton's visit to Beijing to tackle North Korea, the financial crisis and climate change, but tread carefully on human rights.

China, she said, may repeat that it wants the United States to stop arms sales to Taiwain, but may settle for some 'face-saving gesture by Washington to resume' high-level military exchanges suspended last year.

However, as the article notes, Obama sent Clinton to Asia first, not Europe.

I do believe in pandas... I do believe in pandas... I do believe in pandas...

The NYTimes has a long article on the negotiations between Taiwan and China over a possible joint exhibition of Chinese art treasures:

Yet even the initial negotiations with the mainland are controversial in Taiwan. The opposition, the Democratic Progressive Party, favors greater political separation from the mainland.

The opposition party points out that the mainland still does not even accept the name of the National Palace Museum, as the term “National” might be construed as acknowledging the sovereignty of the Taipei government. The official Xinhua news agency of Beijing cites the full name only in quotation marks. This irks the Democratic Progressive Party.

“Culture and civilization belong to humankind, and we don’t have a problem with sharing that,” said Cheng Wentsan, the party’s chief spokesman. “The problem now is that China is using this in a political way. China is using this to degrade Taiwan.”

If the DPP had real stones, they would be pushing the KMT to give the treasures back to China, which is, after all, the nation they actually belong to.

And remember, whenever you say you don't believe in pandas, somewhere a panda dies.

[Taiwan]

Taiwan Cold Shoulders Own Imprisoned Spy

From Edward Cody at the Washington Post comes the tragic story of a man who spied for the Taiwan government, was imprisoned for 13 years, lost his family, and now wants what's due to him -- and isn't getting it:

Jiang, once an asset but no longer useful in the spy war, spent most of March in Taipei dunning the Taiwan Military Intelligence Bureau for what he believes he is due. After 26 days and several tense meetings, he said, the Taiwanese espionage agency said it concluded that Jiang has no claim on such financial support and no right to a residence visa. Jiang said a senior bureau official told him as much Wednesday and ordered him not to speak publicly about his work for the service, warning that under Taiwanese law he could be jailed again if he did.

"I told them, 'I was your man then, and I should be your man now,' " Jiang said, heedless of the warning. "What kind of a government is that? I was very disappointed."

The Taiwanese spy agency, responding to an inquiry, said it had decided Jiang was ineligible for benefits because he had never been a full-time Taiwanese Defense Ministry employee and that the government had fulfilled its obligations with payments that Jiang said totaled $36,000 to help meet medical expenses after his release from prison in 2001.

Can't even give the guy a residence visa, never mind the compensation that is his just due. How will cases like this affect the willingness of others to spy for the island? Penny wise, pound foolish.

[Taiwan] [China] [spies]