Posted on 10/02/2007 7:36:04 PM PDT by Tainan
An opposition lawmaker said Taiwan's espionage operations have faltered in mainland China, with the island having difficulty recruiting new Chinese spies while losing many former agents.
Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) of the Kuomintang said in a statement issued Monday night that one of the reasons fewer spies are working for Taiwan in China was President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) failure to keep some of the intelligence gathered by the spies confidential.
During an election campaign in 2003, Chen made public the number of missiles China had against Taiwan and also mentioned the sites where the missiles were deployed, disclosures that alarmed many Chinese agents working for the island, he said.
The reduced number of spies was also reflected in the island's sharply cut espionage expenditures over the past two years.
In 2006, the Military Intelligence Bureau spent only 65 percent of the money budgeted for "mainland work", down from 75 percent in 2005 and 90 percent in 2004, Lin pointed out.
Lin also said the Taiwanese military reported 10 cases of Taiwanese officials caught leaking military secrets in the first six months this year, compared with 15 cases in 2006.
All the revelations indicated "our side has lost edges in the cross-Strait espionage warfare," he said.
ping to a couple of articles from todays Taiwan News. I posted a comment on this one that was meant for the other article....oops!
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