Taiwan still looking into espionage damage - Wendell Minnick

Ministry of Defense, Taipei via Wikipedia

Taiwan is still trying to assess the amount of damage caused by one of the largest espionage case, after the late-January arrest of General Lo Hsien-che, who ran the communications, electronics and information division of Army Command Headquarters, writes Wendell Minnick in Defense News.

The one-star general stands accused of compromising the Po Sheng (Broad Victory) C4I program. Po Sheng includes a fiber-optic communication cable network and procedures for sharing information with U.S. Pacific Command.
In Defense News:

Ministry of National Defense (MND)... officials announced his arrest Feb. 8, and said a damage assessment team is looking into how much Lo may have given China.
U.S. officials are pressuring Taiwan to be more transparent about the damage allegedly caused by Lo. The consequences could include losing the Pentagon's confidence in Taiwan's ability to protect U.S. defense technologies sold to the self-rule island. Taiwan is pushing Washington hard for the release of new F-16 fighter aircraft and is awaiting delivery of Patriot PAC-3 air defense missile systems and P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft. All are technologies China is anxious to learn more about.
One former Taiwan defense attaché said the MND is unlikely to dig too deeply. There's a long tradition of "making a big issue small" (da shi hua xiao) in Taiwan's military bureaucracy, the former attaché said.
"Even if the top leader asks whoever is in charge of the investigation to be completely honest, from the second level down, people will most likely try to make it sound less serious," he said.

More in Defense News.

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Wendell Minnick

Wendell Minnick is currently preparing a book on Chinese espionage that is due coming summer. He is also a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

Related articles

• Taiwan's missiles "no message for China or US" - Wendell Minnick (chinaherald.net)
• Russian fighter jet "no option for China" - Wendell Minnick (chinaherald.net)
• Test flight for J-20 figher - Wendell Minnick (chinaherald.net)