WikiLeaks has released an unclassified diplomatic cable from the United States Embassy in the People’s Republic of China to the State Department in Washington, D.C. about a September 2008 media briefing in Beijing by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Although much attention was focused on the nuclear weapons threat posed by North Korea, the September 8, 2008 execution of People’s Liberation Army Lt. Dai Yibiao for spying was raised at the news conference.
Chinese spokeswoman Jiang Yu said she had “no information” on why China executed the military officer for spying for the Republic of China in-exile if Taiwan was a part of China.
Dai Yibiao had been purportedly recruited by the ROC Military Intelligence Bureau, dubbed the “Men in Black”, and been paid $12,000 for secret documents. The 33 year-old Chinese military officer was accused of sending 116 electronic documents to the ROC from an internet café in Wuxi, Jiangsu on November 25, 2006.
The classified documents that cost Dai Yibiao his life included nine marked Top Secret, 35 classified Secret, and 55 that were Confidential.
Since 2000, China has arrested more than 40 alleged ROC spies. In 2004, two dozen were arrested making it the worst year for the MIB in Taiwan. The mass arrests raised allegations that the National Security Bureau of the Republic of China in-exile had been penetrated and that the ROC spy network in China had been compromised.
York Chen, with the Institute for Taiwan Defense and Strategic Studies, told Defense News at the time that human assets in the cross-strait spy business had been downgraded, “Our MIB finds it is getting harder to buy them off.”
Dai Yibiao, who denied his guilt, was executed shortly after his conviction by the Nanjing Military Court three days earlier according to Chinese news reports. The alleged spy was reportedly executed by firing squad after his appeal was denied.
Taiwan’s unresolved international status, Chinese claims to the island, and longstanding spy networks have made a fertile field for espionage activity.
For further information on Taiwan’s unresolved status click HERE
Source: Michael Richardson - Boston Progressive Examiner
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