MCLC: memorial to spies

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: memorial to spies
***********************************************************

Source: Sinosphere Blog, NYT (12/18/13):
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/china-unveils-memorial-to-sp
ies-in-taiwan/

China Unveils Memorial to Spies in Taiwan
By AUSTIN RAMZY 

China has completed a monument to Communist agents who were executed in
Taiwan during the 1950s, a reminder of the longstanding conflict between
the two sides. While tensions have eased in recent years, they have hardly
disappeared. The monument was unveiled this week as a report emerged that
Taiwan and China had discussed an exchange of imprisoned spies.

The granite monument in Beijing’s Western Hills sheds light on the extent
of the covert activities that continued after Chiang Kai-shek’s
Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 following their defeat by Mao
Zedong’s Communists.

The memorial lists 846 names and includes blank spaces to allow the
addition of more, the state-run China News Service reported
<http://www.chinanews.com/tw/2013/12-17/5628902.shtml>, adding that about
1,100 of some 1,500 agents sent to Taiwan in the early 1950s were caught
and executed.

In front of a wall carved with relief sculptures stand four statues of
prominent agents. These are Wu Shi, a Nationalist general who became
Taiwan’s deputy defense minister; his two deputies, Chen Baocang and Nie
Xi; and Zhu Feng, a woman who had been sent to collect intelligence from
General Wu, whose allegiance had shifted to the Communists. Ms. Zhu’s
remains were found by a researcher in Taiwan and sent back
<http://english.caixin.com/2011-07-15/100279884_2.html> to the Chinese
mainland in 2011.

The four were exposed when Cai Xiaoqian, a leader of the underground
Communist Party in Taiwan, was captured and revealed the names of hundreds
of agents. The group was accused of passing on extensive details about
plans to defend Taiwan against an invasion from mainland China. All four
were executed on June 10, 1950.

The memorial was dedicated to “heroes who were unswerving in their
loyalty, who would rather die than submit,” the China News Service said.
While it was built to commemorate events of more than half a century past,
the spy wars between China and Taiwan continue today. China considers
self-governing Taiwan part of its territory that must eventually be
reunified, by force if necessary.

On Monday, Taiwan’s justice minister, Lo Ying-hsueh, denied that any
consideration was being given to releasing Lo Hsien-che, a former Taiwan
major general who was jailed in 2011 for providing information to China
during a posting in Thailand, Taiwan’s state-run Central News Agency
reported <http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201312160024.aspx>.

Ms. Lo was responding to a report
<http://news.chinatimes.com/politics/11050202/112013121600120.html> by the
Taipei-based China Times newspaper that Taiwan and China had discussed an
exchange of imprisoned spies, including Hsu Kuo-chang and Chu Kung-hsun,
two Taiwan intelligence officers who were detained in Vietnam in 2006 and
taken to China.

The Beijing memorial to Chinese agents in Taiwan was announced shortly
after the Central Intelligence Agency honored
<http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/c-i-a-honors-former-officer
s-held-captive-for-decades-in-china/> a pair of officers who spent two
decades imprisoned in China with the Distinguished Intelligence Cross, its
highest award for valor.