Prosecutions relating to Chinese espionage have jumped in Taiwan in recent years, according to a new report by the country's National Security Bureau. It says China is seeking to infiltrate all sectors in Taiwan and trying to recruit sniper gangs and spies to carry out armed insurrection in the event of a Chinese invasion.
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00:00Meanwhile, Taiwan says that China is trying to recruit Taiwanese spies to carry out armed
00:05insurrection and even possibly form sniper teams in the event of a Chinese invasion.
00:09Now, that's according to a report published by Taiwan's National Security Bureau.
00:14Louise Wang is following this story for us and she joins us live from Taipei.
00:17Louise, this report makes for some pretty grim reading.
00:21What more can you tell us?
00:26Eric, this report gives us some indication of the extent of the challenge Taiwan is facing
00:32when it comes to Chinese espionage.
00:35The report details the numbers of prosecutions relating to Chinese spying in recent years.
00:43Back in 2021, there were 16 cases.
00:47That went down a bit the following year and then in 2023, it jumped to 48 and just last
00:52year there were 64 prosecutions.
00:56Now worryingly for Taiwan, as China seeks to get its hands on its defense intel, most
01:03of those 64 cases involved serving members of the military, 28 cases and 15 cases involved
01:13former members of the military.
01:15So it seems that the main target for Chinese spying recruitment is active and former members
01:23of the military and Chinese spies are frequently trying, according to the report, to use retired
01:30service personnel to recruit acting service personnel.
01:35They offer incentives such as cash and they target people with heavy debt, for example.
01:42Now it's not just military who are being targeted here, it's government agencies, it's
01:47local temples, religious groups and criminal gangs.
01:52And one of the more notable parts of the report is about what China would try to get its spy
01:59networks in Taiwan to do if it invaded Taiwan.
02:03The National Security Bureau says it's found evidence that gangs recruited as spies were
02:08told to raise Chinese flags and mount armed insurrection in the case of an invasion.
02:15And the report also says that China is trying to recruit spies to form sniper teams to come
02:23up with sniper missions targeting military installations and also foreign institutions
02:29based in Taiwan.
02:31Now China's doing this, of course, to gain defense intel, but not just because of that.
02:37Also to lower the morale of the Taiwanese people.
02:41Now to counter this, the National Security Bureau says it's working more closely with
02:46investigative and military agencies to try and root out Chinese espionage.
02:53And just last week it was brought to light that prosecutors have a case against seven
02:59suspects, again mostly retired military officers, and they're alleged to have been recruited
03:06to send photos and GPS coordinates to China of military installations in Taiwan, as well
03:12as the de facto U.S. embassy here.