China Arrests 24 Taiwan ‘Spies’ as Tension Simmers

Hong Kong

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has arrested 24 “spies” from diplomatic foe Taiwan and 19 mainland Chinese accomplices amid simmering tensions over plans by the island for a referendum, a move that has riled Beijing and alarmed Washington.

Analysts said China’s rare and swift admission of the espionage scandal could cast Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian as irresponsible and hurt his March 2004 re-election bid.

Hong Kong’s Ming Pao daily reported this week that Chinese authorities had swooped on a spy ring after Chen made public, with pinpoint accuracy, the location of Chinese missiles aimed at the island. Chen’s spokesman has defended the president, saying it was public information.

Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must be brought back to the fold and has vowed to attack the self-ruled democratic island of 23 million if it formally declares independence.

“What these spies did may bring catastrophes and bitterness to the people of Taiwan,” China’s official Xinhua news agency said Wednesday, quoting a state security spokesman.

The Taiwan Defense Ministry’s Military Intelligence Bureau earlier dismissed the Hong Kong newspaper report, saying nobody had been arrested.

GRATITUDE?

Xinhua gave scant details of the alleged activities of those detained but said they had confessed to their crimes and all had “expressed their gratitude to the state security departments for the humanitarian treatment they have received.”

“The intelligence departments of Taiwan have never given up their attempts to spy on the mainland,” the spokesman said.

Xinhua said the spies had been interrogated “strictly in accordance with the law,” their rights were being protected, and they were being given daily necessities and medical care.

“The spies are in good health,” Xinhua said. The spokesman said the case was being investigated further.

In the most notorious espionage scandal in China’s Communist era, a major general and a senior colonel were executed in 1999 for spying for Taiwan.

Taiwan analysts said the latest announcement could discredit Chen, who faces a tough re-election battle and has pinned his hopes in part on a contentious referendum calling on China to withdraw hundreds of missiles aimed at the island.

“It gives the opposition camp ammunition to attack Chen,” said a Taiwan academic who spoke on condition of anonymity. China’s policymaking Taiwan Affairs Office has called top Taiwan businessmen in China to Beijing for a closed-door emergency meeting Thursday, said Hsieh Kun-tsung, president of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce (news – web sites) in the Chinese capital. The agenda of the meeting was unknown.

“We’ve been here 10 to 20 years. We know if there’s no evidence this side will not arrest people,” Hsieh told reporters.

He said the scandal was “very bad” for bilateral relations, but unlikely to hurt the Taiwan business community in China, which numbers around one million long-term residents alone.

“I think the mainland side is rational. It will go after whoever breaks the law,” Hsieh said.

Cross-strait tensions have been boiling since November, when Taiwan’s parliament passed a controversial law to permit referendums.

President Bush (news – web sites) told Beijing this month the United States opposed any unilateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo. It was seen as a blunt warning to Chen not to go ahead with his planned referendum.

Last week, Taiwan Vice President Annette Lu said Chinese missiles aimed at the island were a form of “state terrorism,” and she gave no sign that the government was backing down from plans to hold the referendum on the missile issue.

Taiwan says the referendum is not aimed at upsetting the status quo. But China sees it as a step toward a declaration of independence.

Trade and tourism between China and Taiwan have blossomed since detente began in the late 1980s, but are routed mostly through Hong Kong due to a decades-old ban by the island on direct air and shipping links with the mainland.