Taiwan’s National Security Bureau has confirmed that it has apprehended a suspected Chinese spy, Zhen Ziaojiang. Many Taiwanese believe that China will attempt a prisoner swap in order to get back its agent in exchange for two Taiwanese Military Intelligence Bureau agents that China had captured more than 10 years ago in Vietnam.
Taipei prosecutors indicted Zhen Ziaojiang and his alleged spy ring for espionage activities on Jan. 16. The spy ring was made up of six individuals, Zhen Ziaojiang (the spy master), and five Taiwanese; Hsu Nai-chuan (a former Army Major General), Chou Chih-li (an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel), Yang Jung-hua (an Air Force official), Lee Huan-yu Sung (a karaoke club owner) and Chia-lu (an Air Force pilot).
Intelligence from open sources indicates that Zhen was an intelligence officer in the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) with the rank of captain. This has raised speculations that the espionage operation in Taiwan was run by PLA’s Second Department of the General Staff Department.
The Taiwanese government has alleged that Zhen Ziaojiang obtained Hong Kong residency in 2005 and that his subsequent multiple trips to Taiwan were missions to infiltrate and recruit spies from within the Taiwanese military establishment. Zhen’s intelligence contact in China was Mao Shangyu, probably a pseudonym of an intelligence agent located in Xiamen city within Fujian Province.
