Taiwan Under Siege: Watchdog Sounds Alarm on Chinese Infiltration

National Security at Risk as China's Influence Threatens Democratic Institutions

Taiwan faces significant national security threats due to alleged infiltration and espionage activities orchestrated by China, as reported by Citizen Congress Watch (CCW). These threats include attempts to manipulate elections through Chinese funding, influence politicians, and compromise lawmakers to undermine Taiwan's sovereignty.

The CCW highlighted that Taiwan's unicameral legislature makes it particularly vulnerable. As CCW director Chang Hung-Lin (張宏林) explained at a press conference in Taipei, “because all legislative bills, government budgets and top official appointments need only to be approved by [a single-house] legislature, and when it is involved in a security breach, the government and society as a whole are in danger.”

“This past year, we saw two opposition parties acting to betray the interests of this country and its people... We also have had multiple cases of infiltration targeting lawmakers and their aides to spy for China,” Chang said.

CCW detailed eight major national security crises within Taiwan's legislative system:

• Enemy infiltration into lawmakers’ offices.
• Disinformation campaigns.
• Chinese money being channeled into elections.
• Lenient sentences in Chinese espionage cases.
• Insufficient support for Taiwanese sovereignty.
• Opposition parties slashing budgets.
• Lack of information security awareness.
• Failure to prevent leaks of classified information.

CCW chairman Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元) identified a “list of worst legislators” whose actions allegedly undermined national security. Topping the list was KMT Legislator Lin Shih-ming (林思銘), who blocked 124 national security-related bills during this legislative session.

Following were TPP legislators Lin Kuo-cheng (林國成) and Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), who blocked 110 bills each. KMT Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) blocked 41 bills.

Other legislators mentioned included KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇), Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲) and Lin Chien-chi (林倩綺), who blocked 25, 24, 23 and 23 national security-related bills respectively, according to Tseng.