Taiwan rebukes China on another fake spy case

Chine intensified its witch-hunt against Taipei, a day after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called upon Beijing ‘to heed Taiwan’s voice, change the way it handles cross-strait relations.’ Chinese media airs the third episode, glorifying Beijing’s apprehension of fake Taiwanese spies

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New Delhi: Responding to China’s malicious attack, alleging Taiwan to be posting spies around the world, Taipei’s leadership severely rebuked Beijing for its codology. The latest allegation from China came days after Beijing faked another case of having arrested an individual, whom they tagged to be a Taiwanese spy operating in Hong Kong.

China seems to have intensified its witch-hunt against Taipei, a day after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called upon Beijing ‘to heed Taiwan’s voice, change the way it handles cross-strait relations.’

In its reply to the baseless allegations cooked by China, the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) October 13, in a statement said that ‘there is no Taiwanese diplomat in Prague named Lee Yun-peng who could have worked with an alleged spy as China claims. China has been fabricating reports about Taiwanese spies since Sunday.

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The MoFA dismissed China’s claim that Taipei ever had any diplomat by the name Lee Yun-peng in Prague, contrary to a claim made by a man identified as Cheng Yu-chin in a report aired by state-controlled China Central Television (CCTV) on October 12.

The Chinese television channel in its report ‘Current Affairs’ introduced Cheng as a Taiwanese spy and claimed to have been an aide to former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Cho Jung-tai. The report added that Cheng was enrolled in a doctoral program at Charles University in Prague in 2004, where he befriended Lee, who he told the program was the Taiwanese representative to the Czech Republic. The Chinese TV, without any evidence, said that Lee told Cheng that he was working for the National Security Bureau.

According to the unsubstantiated Chinese report, Cheng even confessed to setting up a research academy to gain access to global organizations, agencies to collect intelligence. The report claimed that Cheng was apprehended in 2005 by Beijing’s authorities.

While rubbishing China’s fib, Johnson Chiang, Director-General of Department of European Affairs said that there is no diplomat named Lee Yun-peng in Prague and that most of the CCTV program content was fabricated. He added that Cheng was known for publicly promoting China’s Belt and Road Initiative and China-EU relations during his stay in the Czech Republic from 2005 to 2018.

On October 13, the CCTV aired the third episode in its series on Taiwan’s spies, wherein it featured another two alleged spies deputed by Taipei: Southern Taiwan Union of Cross-strait Relations Association chairman Tsai Chin-shu, and retired National Taiwan Normal University professor Shih Cheng-ping. As per records, both the individuals had gone missing after arriving in China in 2018.