August 22:
Taiwan’s Investigation Bureau has requested the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office investigate the newly dismissed former Mainland Affairs Council deputy chief Chang Hsien-yao “on suspicion of leaking confidential information.” According to a preliminary investigation, while serving as MAC deputy chief, Chang handed over five secret documents to Beijing officials during trips to China. Formosa Television Cable News Channel reports that the documents include “Taiwan’s bottom line in negotiations with China, its bottom line on a meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and information on major cross-strait policies.” If Chang is found guilty he would face 3-10 years in prison and become the highest ranking spy in Taiwan’s history. Mainland Affairs Council chief Wang Yu-chi said: “I told Chang Hsien-yao that I knew his family had some problems, so it pained me to discuss these matters at such a time. But I had no choice because someone had reported him on suspicion of leaking confidential information.”
August 24:
Indian soldiers stationed for long periods along the China-India border high in the Himalayan Mountains are at high risk for “psychiatric disorders including Alzheimers,” the Press Trust of India reports. In response, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is in the process of retiring over 100 active soldiers. About sixty solders suffering from psychiatric disorders have been decommissioned with about 40 more to come. Cases seem be attributable to a combination of genetic history, family troubles, and “have been noticed in troops who have served for long periods in the force,” an Indian official noted. He said mental health among the ITBP remains a “serious risk” for other unit members if their compatriots began to exhibit “maniac” behavior while “rendering sensitive duties in the internal security domain of the country or during border guarding duties.”
August 25:
On August 19, a Chinese J-11B fighter jet came within 20 feet of a U.S. Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon submarine surveillance aircraft, reports the Washington Post. Rear Admiral John Kirby called the “buzzing,” which occurred in international airspace 135 miles east of Hainan Island, unprofessional, unsafe, unacceptable and “not in keeping with the kind of military-to-military relations that we'd like to have with China.” He said: “The Chinese jet passed the nose of the P-8 at 90 degrees with its belly toward the P-8 Poseidon, we believe to make a point of showing its weapons load out. They flew directly under and alongside the P-8, bringing their wingtips to within 20 feet and then conducted a roll over the P-8, passing within 45 feet.” Beijing called the Pentagon’s assertion “totally groundless,” and insisted that its pilot had maintained a safe distance from the U.S. aircraft. As far as China is concerned, the guilty party here is the U.S. and its “massive and frequent close-in surveillance of China,” the official China Daily reports.
August 27:
Two People’s Liberation Army aircraft twice entered Taiwan’s airspace, Taiwan’s defense minister Yen Ming said in comments carried by BusinessWeek. The incident ended when Taipei’s fighter jets “asked them to leave,” Yen said. The incursion came just as a delegation from China arrived at the Pentagon to hold long-scheduled talks on a code of conduct for international waters and airspace, the official China Daily reports. Details of those meetings have not yet emerged, but it is likely discussions focused on avoiding provocative situations that could produce a collision and escalate into military engagement, Reuters reports.
August 30:
Lin Chu-chia, a deputy minister of the Mainland Affairs Council, has been named to replace Chang Hsien-yao as the principal deputy of the Cabinet-level agency responsible for Taiwan's policies toward China, Taipei’s official Central News Agency reports. Economics Minister Duh Tyzz-jiun recognized that Chang’s sudden departure last week under the cloud of leaking secrets “has affected the negotiators mentally to some degree. As long as we have a careful grip, there is no high possibility of secrets being leaked,” Duh said.
