Two Taiwan prosecutors questioned by Chinese state security in Henan: MAC

Taipei, Jan. 29 (CNA) Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese state security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China's Henan Province in early January, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Thursday.

The Chinese state security officers already had personal information on the prosecutors, including "when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles," MAC deputy head and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a regular news briefing in Taipei.

Apart from asking about their agencies and positions, the Chinese officers also questioned them about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang added.

The two prosecutors were asked to add the officers on the messaging app WeChat to stay in contact, but the prosecutors "remained vigilant" and refused the request, Liang said, adding that they were not threatened during the questioning.

However, he noted that in some cases, Chinese authorities have used a Taiwanese person's relatives in China to pressure or threaten them.

As for the prosecutors' backgrounds, Liang noted only that they were relatively new to the job and had not handled cases involving national security or alleged Chinese espionage.

On how the officers obtained the prosecutors' information, Liang said Beijing has "many ways" to obtain such details, citing China's "many infiltration channels" in Taiwan, but did not rule out cyberattacks.

He said that two prosecutors proactively reported the incident on returning to Taiwan, noting that MAC has detailed rules requiring public servants who travel to China to file relevant information after they return and to report any "unusual situations."

"We want to remind public servants nationwide not to assume there is no risk of being monitored or investigated when traveling to China simply because they do not have access to state secrets or do not hold senior positions," Liang added.

The Chinese authorities are exploiting Taiwanese public servants' "lack of risk awareness and vigilance" to continuously expand their infiltration networks targeting Taiwan, he added.

On Jan. 16, Liang said MAC had "recently" received reports from public servants at central government agencies that, during trips to China, they were questioned during immigration clearance and approached by Chinese state security personnel who entered their hotel rooms to question them about their duties, supervisors and colleagues.

At the time, he did not disclose how many such cases had been reported during that "recent" period.

He said Thursday that the two prosecutors' cases were separate from the cases he referred to on Jan. 16.