The arrest of Lo Hsien-che, a major general in the Republic of China in-exile Army, on espionage charges has caused a pall on rosy reports about a cross-strait thaw in relations between the ROC and the People’s Republic of China.
Whether military secrets of the United States were the goal of Chinese spying or the security of Taiwan was the target is unknown. General Lo was well positioned to compromise Taiwan’s defense but the extent of damage to U.S. military secrets was likely limited say Washington observers. Past weapons sales to Taiwan have been restricted to partial capabilities out of spying concerns.
However, Chinese penetration of ROC defenses is a concern to the United States and will likely be a factor in a decision whether or not to sell advanced F-16 fighter jets to the Chinese Nationalists exiled on Taiwan.
General Lo was to command Po Sheng or Broad Victory, a joint command military strike information-sharing platform. Po Sheng is designed to allow for integrated battle communications between ROC military branches and to interface with the U.S. Pacific Command.
General Lo is the highest ranking military spy yet accused in ROC’s tumultuous history since the White Terror era.. At the time of Lo’s arrest, secret Po Sheng documents were allegedly found at his home. The ROC general had reportedly been recruited by a Chinese female agent with sex and money.
Lo also had access to details of Taiwan’s underground optical fiber communications network and communications technology in Apache helicopters sold by the United States to the Republic of China in-exile.
Richard Fisher, of the International Assessment and Strategy Center think-tank, told the Taipei Times that the spy charges were “deadly serious” and could be “very damaging” to Taiwan.
Fisher said, “It is not difficult to see how the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] would view the ability to turn off or take control of Po Sheng as critical to a range of coercive military scenerios that could lead to political capitulation in Taipei before the start of a full attack.”
Fisher has previously warned about a shift in the balance of power caused by China’s continued military growth: “Most worrying of all is the steady Chinese military buildup against Taiwan….This new situation demands new, realistic thinking and new, substantial policies are required from Washington if our own interests and those of our democratic friends and allies are to be maintained.”
Comments
" Han is still Han."
AKA Yankee is still Yankee.
Americans who says such things are doin Bin Laden good!
Who atomized Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Han or Yankee?
And you want Japan to go nuclear just to be your instrument to atomized Han?
Yah sure, Yankee haven't forgotten about Peal Harbor.
OO7 spy sagas are natural fare for USA, Russia, UK,
and it is expected to happen between the PRC and ROC too.
Japan was a victim of unnecessary , militarily speaking , of not one but two atomic bombings of civilian targets , Hiroshima and Nagasaki so Tokyo should not be fooled into being a new target under the prodding of the ones who actually set ablaze thousands of innocent women and children .
The PRC's military might is exaggerated .
Beijing will always be at least 50 years behind Uncle Sam in military technology and strategy.
So what Taiwan needs is formal diplomatic recognition from democratic 'ALLY' Washington.
And you though people on this part of the world still believe that Pearl Harobor was indeed a 'sneak attack'?
Good luck with that one too!
Cheers
What you see… (I)
Luo had been sought out by the Zhongnanhai intelligence apparatus during the Chen Shui-bian years.
In those years, the Taipei Chinese displayed unabashedly their atavistic allergy to a Taiwan they perceive rightfully as still Japanese to the bone. Some, like current ROC president Ma were recorded wanting CSB wasted, badly. Remember the honor guard who had to fight an urge to whack CSB with his rifle butt?
During that period, Taiwanese BBS boards displayed disturbing posts that called for desertion in the event of CSB’s “antics” triggering a Chinese attack. Never did any of those posts question the Chinese threat. Such public outbursts raised doubts on the ROC armed forces loyalty to Taiwan. What of the ROC army allegiance to a de-ChiNAZIfied Taiwan? Could the ROC armed forces be relied upon to safeguard the integrity of Taiwan if confronted with a Chinese attack?
What you see… (II)
Luo is a career officer, son of an exiled Chinese veteran. What is the ratio of 1949 Chinese civil war refugees’ offspring in the officer corps of the ROC armed forces? Especially among those career officers who, upon their schooling in the Chinese refugees’ preserve that the Taiwanese military academies are, get training in US military academies at Taiwanese tax-payer’s expenses.
In those CSB years, Luo’s Chinese background and psyche arguably made him an easy prey to his Chinese handlers’ sweet talk. Here, the “honey pot” (bewitching Chinese female spy and monetary rewards) storyline is essentially a decoy meant to trivialize Luo’s behavior. He is made to be your average block with average foibles to better deflect the attention from the deeper issue.
What you see… (III)
Proponents of an institutionalized Taiwanese struggle for normalization are vying for leadership positions inside the colonial framework of the ROC brand. However, as the aspirations of the locals were unleashed and the Taiwanese mainstream consensus over the status of the ROC progressed from “Taiwan is part the ROC” to “ROC is Taiwan”, those Chinese refugees whose privileges were at stake grew insecure and discovered the irresistible pull of the motherland now labeled under the PRC moniker.
History tells us that the US never depended upon the ROC to defend US-conquered Japanese Taiwan. And legally, once Japanese and now stateless Taiwanese are definitely not Chinese. The conscription of Taiwanese in the ROC armed forces, along with their forced mass-naturalization and the thirty-eight year-long martial law the Chinese exiles enforced are war crimes that will have to be accounted for.
What you see… (IV)
Once the historical and legal status of ROC in the pecking order on the SFPT cession Taiwan is understood, calls for the US to provide weapons to an obsolete Chinese rebel faction sound utterly preposterous. The integrity of Taiwan is the US to safeguard.
The Beijing and Taihoku Chinese spare no pains in burying the SFPT. But the success of their obfuscation depends on the US executive’s equally strenuous efforts to promote the belief that it has no design on Taiwan. What you see is blocking your sight.
It passed 66 years Formosan has been under the political purgatory. USA has never done any type of dialogs with Formosan!
Now, the Committee of Foreign Affairs is going to have hearing, and if the voice of the native Formosan reaches to the ear of USMG, the change shall be made.
The 66 years is long enough for Chinese to exercise the Terror on Taiwan, and there is no typhoon last for 66 years. Look what the Arab countries are doing? The power of the people is rising!
Let’s wait and see. It has been unfair to Formosan on Taiwan.
The punishment by heaven shall come down to the murders of the 228 massacre and the ethnic cleansing, when, USMG will change the policy too.
The cunning Chinese can smile no long to say the stupid American to sell the weapons to China via Taiwan.
CK Chen wrote: << The punishment by heaven shall come down to the murders of the 228 massacre and the ethnic cleansing, when, USMG will change the policy too. >>
Can Mr. Cheng-Kuang Chen or anybody else here on this forum give us the mailing address of the USMG? So everybody can send send letters to the USMG...?
"And legally, once Japanese and now stateless Taiwanese are definitely not Chinese"
The Siraya, Sedeq, Bunun, Atayal and company are indeed neither Japanese nor Chinese.
In the late 1970s, in sinicised Taihoku (台北), I observed college students hailing from tribal communities of Taiwan east coast. They spoke Japanese. The sino-centric education the ROC had been forcing on them also forbade using the Japanese language since 1946.
How had they picked up the language, then?
They had learnt it at home, from their parents.
What motive had those families to flaunt authoritarian rules and pass on the Japanese language to the next generation?
Love of country. They wanted the next generation ready to welcome the return of Taiwan under Japanese control. They wanted their children to remain true to their motherland, Japan.
Many Formosans recall fondly that they once were Japanese. But none are more irreducibly Japanese than the Formosan mountain tribes.
"Many Formosans recall fondly that they once were Japanese. But none are more irreducibly Japanese than the Formosan mountain tribes."
LTH comes to mind but he's not one of your "Formosan mountain tribes".
The term "Formosan mountain tribes" is a racist colonizer -to- colonized term which belongs to the past and is now considered an insulting term to the genuine owners of the Island like the Taroko, Siraya, Atayal and company.
Try using that term face-to-face with a Tsou or Amis nowadays if you dare and pray that they will spare an octogenarian folk with just a plain stare.
Only very old once Japanese Formosan Hokkien - Chinese matching LTH's age still have sakura deja vu .
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