The number of people prosecuted for allegedly spying on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has quadrupled in the past three years, according to Taiwan’s National Security Bureau (NSB).
In a report published on Jan. 12, analyzing the CCP’s targets and tactics, the NSB said a total of 64 people were prosecuted in CCP spy cases in 2024. In the previous three years, 16, 10, and 48 alleged spies, respectively, were prosecuted.
The number of spy cases in 2024 was 15, compared with three in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, there were five and 14 cases, respectively, alleging spying for the CCP. The data do not include prosecutions under the Anti-Infiltration Act.
Among those prosecuted in 2024, almost two-thirds of the defendants were current and former military personnel, including 28 active military personnel and 15 former soldiers.
The numbers show that active military personnel are the main targets of the CCP’s infiltration, according to the NSB. Other targets include members of government departments and pro-Beijing organizations.
The report listed the CCP’s typical tactics used in the cases, including colluding with criminal gangs, entrapping former soldiers with debts, and influencing elections through various methods.
According to the NSB, the CCP has recruited criminal gangs in Taiwan to target active military personnel who are facing financial difficulties, and offer them interest-free loans in exchange for sensitive information. Criminal gangs have also been asked to erect the CCP’s five-star red flag when the CCP invades Taiwan.
The gangs have also attempted to set up sniper teams using CCP funds, instructing ex-military officers to list high-ranking officials of Taiwan’s military, and to collect the coordinates and photos of foreign agencies in Taiwan, as well as military radar stations and training bases, according to the report.
Another method is to have former military personnel set up shell companies, underground banks, and casinos where active military personnel can be incentivized or forced to hand over intelligence, sign declarations of allegiance to the CCP, or defect to mainland China taking with them Taiwanese military helicopters. The same method was also used to target military personnel online via social media platforms such as Facebook, Line, and LinkedIn. Cryptocurrencies were used in an attempt to evade scrutiny.
The CCP also bribes temples to make contact with active military personnel during religious events. The soldiers are then incentivized to provide military intelligence and shoot videos of themselves holding the CCP’s five-star red flag while saying they are defecting to mainland China, according to the report.
Espionage in Court
The report was published days after seven ex-military officers were indicted for allegedly selling photographs and GPS coordinates of Taiwan military installations to their contacts in mainland China.One of the defendants, Chu Hung-yi, is the chairman of a small political party, Fukang Alliance, which was founded in 2023 but failed to have any candidate elected.
Chu was accused of requesting money from a contact in China to fund the party’s campaign costs, and allegedly received 2 million New Taiwan dollars (about $60,400) via WeChat and 150,000 Chinese yuan (about $20,500) via underground money transfers.
The Ministry of the Interior has said it will ask the Constitutional Court to disband the party as soon as possible.
In October 2024, the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office indicted a woman, identified by her surname, Lee, and as a temple chairperson who was linked to a criminal gang, along with nine others.
Lee was accused of recruiting a spy ring of former military personnel who were allegedly instructed to provide sensitive military intelligence and to appear in uniform in videos in which they held the CCP’s five-star red flag and pledged to defect in a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
Hsieh Meng-shu, a lieutenant colonel, conspired to defect to the CCP with a CH-47 Chinook helicopter after being persuaded to do so by ex-military officer Hsieh Ping-cheng, according to the judgment.
