The High People's Procuratorate today (6th) indicted four people, including non-party legislator Gao Jin Sumei and absconding office director Zhang Junjie, in accordance with the National Security Law for organizing crimes, corruption and other crimes. The indictment directly accused them of trying to be used as a "fifth column." He Chenghui, deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Security Association, pointed out in an interview that the mission of the fifth column can be divided into three stages: peacetime, pre-war, and wartime. In peacetime, it develops organizations, expands influence, and collects information. In wartime, it turns to destroying infrastructure and spreading false information. In wartime, it cooperates with military operations to cooperate and destroy. "Especially in the third stage, it will even intensify."
The indictment pointed out that between 2005 and 2016, Gao Jin Sumei and others integrated the tribal working team and the congressional team into the "Ancestral Spirit State Team", operating with "one set of people and two signs", introducing more than 170 million yuan in CCP funds, and arranging personnel to go to China to receive training on the island's united front work and then infiltrate the hometown. The prosecutors asked Gao Jin to be sentenced to 14 years in prison, and Zhang Junjie to be sentenced to 15 years.
He Chenghui said that in peacetime, conspiracy theories such as mistrust of the United States are spread, with the purpose of dividing and isolating the target country; during the war period, they turn to spreading false information that is a mixture of true and false. The same was true before the Russia-Ukraine war, which was spread in large quantities about one or two months before the war to facilitate subsequent military operations.
He gave an example of the "little green men" that appeared during the 2014 Donbass campaign. They were armed militias or mercenary units wearing military uniforms but without nationality or unit identification. The Wagner Group was the most obvious example, cooperating with the Russian army to occupy and even benefit the enemy. He also bluntly stated that China has always smeared the Black Bear Academy as training militiamen, but what is really training the armed forces in Taiwan is the fifth column of the Chinese Communist Party. The case of the "Rehabilitation Alliance Party" composed of retired soldiers is a typical example; this kind of illegal armed gang usually collects information such as the location of military bases and guard changes, and expects to snipe and kill troop commanders, convoys, supply convoys and medical convoys during wartime.
As for why hometown is a high-value target? He Chenghui pointed out that many strategic locations in Taiwan are located in mountainous areas, which are of high military value and are close to the living and working areas of indigenous groups. The potential threat of the CCP’s development activities here is that once it develops into a fifth column, it may form armed groups or collaborators to cooperate with its actions.
Regarding the Chinese Communist Party’s appropriation of the historical justice discourse of indigenous peoples, He Chenghui believes that this is a typical example of cultural united front, using historical issues and ethnic conflicts to expand geopolitical interests; Russia has used historical issues left over in Poland and Ukraine to reverse narrative and divide, and the Chinese Communist Party is now trying to use historical conflicts to expand infiltration and deployment in Okinawa.
He Chenghui believes that what is more critical is the loopholes in the Congress. Our country's confidentiality protection and leakage prevention mechanism for the Congress is "frankly speaking, it is a blank." The standards for civil servants and even ordinary people are much stricter, but the Congress is completely blank. The reason is political conflicts and the use of political opposition to circumvent. He cited the UK's 2023 amendment to the national security law as an example. Chinese immigration lawyer Li Zhenju was issued a national security warning for the first time because of her high degree of cooperation with members of Congress, and her assistants were also banned. This shows that it is necessary to control members and assistants. "Our current approach is actually extremely irresponsible."
Regarding Zhang Junjie's successful smuggling, He Chenghui said that this is indeed a current loophole and an exploitable channel, which must be comprehensively investigated and blocked from an institutional and systemic perspective. He also believes that relevant legislation such as the "Agent Law" is still necessary. Through disclosure, relevant actors or contacts can be given early warning, and the legal system can be more complete from early warning to subsequent sanctions.
