Thread by @WilliamYang120

By @YimouLee and David Lague: "#China has mounted a broader campaign to undermine #Taiwan's military and civilian leadership, corrode its will to fight, extract details of high-tech weapons and gain insights into defence planning." ctvnews.ca/world/chinese-…

#Taiwan's spycatchers are battling a campaign that has compromised senior officers at the heart of the island's armed forces and government agencies, a steady stream of convictions handed down in the courts shows.

A retired presidential security officer and a serving military police lieutenant colonel at the unit tasked with protecting the president had their conviction upheld earlier this year for leaking sensitive information about Tsai's security to a Chinese intelligence agency.

The information included a hand-drawn organizational chart of the Special Service Center, the unit that protects the president, according to the ruling in the High Court.

In the past decade, at least 21 serving or retired Taiwanese officers with the rank of captain or above have been convicted of spying for China, according to a Reuters review of court records and reports from Taiwan's official news agencies.

At least nine other serving or retired members of the armed forces are currently on trial or being investigated on suspicion of contacts with spies from China, the review shows.

The 21 convicted officers were found guilty of recruiting spies for China or passing a range of sensitive information to China, including contact details of senior Taiwanese officers and details of Taiwan's agents in China.

In Taipei, the Ministry of National Defence told Reuters that pro-active counter-intelligence efforts have stopped China from penetrating the military.

The ministry said in a statement that it employs education campaigns to encourage and reward officers and soldiers to report initial contact with "criminals."

These contacts are immediately investigated, and when there is potential for the loss of confidential information, the military acts to block any leak, the ministry said.

This effort, the ministry said, means "there has been no infiltration."

Other arms of the Taiwanese government, however, greet the spying with alarm. Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council told Reuters in a statement that China's "unceasing expansion of espionage" is one of the "malicious political operations" that Beijing is conducting, ...

... undermining "the normal development of cross-strait relations." Well-placed spies in the ranks of the Taiwan military could offer a priceless advantage to China if the two sides plunge into open conflict, according to Taiwanese and U.S. military analysts.

"China is conducting a very targeted infiltration effort towards Taiwan," said retired Taiwanese navy Lieutenant Commander Lu Li-shih.

Espionage cases, he said, show that Beijing has compromised almost all ranks, including top-level generals, despite intensive internal education campaigns in the military warning of the dangers of Beijing's espionage efforts.