President Tsai Ing-wen recently changed the top-level personnel of our national security in cross-Strait relations, national defense, and foreign affairs with one troika for each to form a bigger troika for our national security. However, at the same time, the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office happened to prosecute four former officials of the Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) as communist spies, including colonels Chang Chao-jan (張超然), Chou Tien-tzu (周天慈), Wang Da-wang (王大旺), and Major General Yueh Chih-chung (岳志忠). They were recruited by the Ministry of State Security of China as potential sources of classified information.

The content of the indictment shows that Taiwan’s most important military intelligence unit has been infiltrated and breached by the other side of the Strait to an unbelievable degree. Those who were responsible for sensitive and important positions in the intelligence community would have no loyalty to the country, would lack basic vigilance against the traps set by the enemy, or would easily forsake their integrity and sell out their country and colleagues for petty profits. Therefore, the so-called National Security troika, under these circumstances, may become horseless. If the breaches and their causes couldn’t be identified, repaired, and prevented one by one as soon as possible, national security is just empty talk.

For decades of confrontation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, intelligence and counter-intelligence warfare has always been the frontline of safeguarding national security. It is a real war that has never ceased. How many unsung heroes died for the country or suffered in prison. However, Chang Chao-jan, a retired colonel as the “Taiwan No. 1 Special Agent” of MIB who claimed to have served undercover during the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989, later became the spy responsible for recruiting Taiwan MIB personnel for China, and he has gained a lot over the years.

Chang Chao-jan took advantage of the old sentiment of his retired colleagues, who are also afraid of being arrested or harassed by China. He easily talked many former colleagues into meeting with personnel of National Security of China and threatened or bribed them into providing their intelligence of organizations and personnel to China, causing serious harm that is difficult to estimate and remedy.

If the content of the indictment is true, it must be said that Taiwan’s national security is almost laid bare. These intelligence officials above the rank of colonels with regular loyalty checks and rigorous professional training not only compromised their integrity and sold out their country, but even recruited people of similar backgrounds systematically and continuously.

Although the people who have been arrested are all retired military intelligence personnel, most of the work of intelligence organizations and personnel are long-term schemes, so the information and intelligence acquired by veterans while they were still serving was still highly valuable. Therefore, the government has set an extra period of restriction and monitoring for officials after their retirement to lower potential risks. Moreover, whether there are any serving members involved in the case still needs to be further investigated.

This newly prosecuted espionage case shows that some sensitive people who possess sensitive intelligence and involved in national security have surrendered to the Communist Party, and more fall into the trap of the enemy. This is a crisis in Taiwan and a major setback and humiliation for the military and the intelligence community. This has been going on for a while, yet we obviously didn’t realize the defense line of our intelligence operations has already been betrayed by our own people and penetrated by the enemy. Just as in the past, one important general of the national army posted overseas was set up by China with a badger game and handed over defense secrets to China. We only got to learn about this case because it was cracked by FBI with an arrest. The serious negligence of the security and counterintelligence units is not only recent and has never been effectively improved.

Intelligence operations involve the subtlety of human nature, and possible motives that may make people turn to the enemy include ideology, the temptations and threats of interests, personal fulfillment and frustrations, and so on. It is extremely complex and interconnected, and the reality is intricate. In recent years, many of Taiwan’s military and intelligence personnel have become spies for Communist China, severely damaging national security. In addition to punishment and prevention through law and regulations, the government must also seriously consider and deal with the hidden factors of the problem. Otherwise, no matter how many horses the troika of national security has, breaches will always be beyond prevention and remedy.

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