Taiwan's Defense Ministry Under Fire Over Rising Chinese Espionage Cases

Taiwan’s defense minister Wellington Koo is coming under fire from lawmakers who say the military is "rotten" with Chinese espionage.

Transcript

00:00Could a spy for China have infiltrated the inner circles of Taiwan's government?

00:05The man, identified here with a red circle, was an aide to Joseph Wu, the country's

00:10last foreign minister and current national security chief.

00:14He's now detained, suspected of gathering information on Taiwan's leadership and passing

00:19it on to China, a cross-straight neighbour which claims sovereignty over Taiwan.

00:24Such cases of espionage are on the rise here, with most of the suspects being military personnel.

00:29Now feeling the heat, Taiwan's defence minister, Wellington Ku, called to answer questions

00:35at the legislature.

00:36What are you doing?

00:39I'm going to support you for 10 years.

00:42This is just one, just one, and it's not expensive.

00:45After we've been a soldier, you've got to win five a week for a week.

00:50Have you been destroyed?

00:53To weed out spies, Taiwan is already bringing back military courts, and now Ku says he wants

00:58to amend the military's penal code.

01:01When I was elected, I would say that it would be a violation of the North Korean War.

01:14President Li Qingde, despised by Beijing for his firm rejection of China's claims over Taiwan,

01:19has made combating Beijing's influence and infiltration central to his leadership.

01:25This rash of suspected spies coming out of the woodwork could indicate that his efforts

01:30against China, also known as the PRC, are working.

01:33There's a claim that the PRC is stepping up his espionage activities.

01:37That having been said, with espionage cases coming to the public, of course they create

01:43a lot of trepidation, they draw a lot of attention.

01:48But the fact that espionage cases are being detected, also means that espionage networks

01:54are being disrupted, right?

01:57Taiwan's defence ministry warns that China's tactics are changing, increasingly using criminal

02:02gangs and religious groups to recruit new spies.

02:05It's an evolving threat for the Taiwanese military, trying to protect their credibility

02:09and integrity as they lead the country's fight against China.

02:14Klein Wang and Rick Laot for Taiwan Plus.