Taiwan's President Tells Military Graduates: Resist China's Spies, Defend Democracy

.

A Pointed Warning at a Cold War Institution

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te delivered a stark message to newly commissioned officers on Tuesday: stay loyal, stay alert, and never give in to Beijing's pressure. He spoke at the graduation ceremony of Fu Hsing Kang College, a military academy on the edge of Taipei with deep roots in the island's anti-communist past.

Lai told the cadets that a soldier's honor begins with loyalty to the nation. He urged them to clearly distinguish "friend from foe" as China steps up what he described as infiltration, division, sabotage, and espionage aimed at Taiwan's armed forces.

"Only by resisting all forms of threat and temptation can we defend our nation's sovereignty and security," Lai said, according to the original Reuters report on the ceremony.

.

China's Long Shadow Over Taiwan's Military

Taiwan and China have spied on each other for decades, but Taiwanese officials say Chinese efforts targeting the armed forces have intensified sharply in recent years. According to Taiwan's National Security Bureau, the number of people prosecuted for suspected espionage on behalf of China rose from just 16 in 2021 to 64 in 2024 — roughly a fourfold increase in three years.

Most of those charged were current or retired members of the military, often approached through criminal networks, religious groups, or financial incentives, according to the bureau's findings reported by international outlets. Officials have said some recruitment efforts went as far as attempts to build spy networks or, in isolated cases, plan acts of sabotage in the event of a Chinese attack.

In response, President Lai unveiled a 17-point national security package in March 2025 aimed at tightening counterintelligence, increasing background checks for sensitive military and government posts, and closing legal loopholes that Beijing has reportedly exploited to recruit informants. Taiwan now officially classifies China as a "hostile external force" under its Anti-Infiltration Act.

China, for its part, claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never ruled out using force to bring the island under its control. Chinese military aircraft and ships operate near Taiwan on a near-daily basis, a pattern Taipei calls part of a broader campaign of military and political pressure.

.

A College Built to Fight Communism

Fu Hsing Kang College carries particular symbolic weight in this context. It was founded in 1951, just two years after the Republic of China government, defeated by Mao Zedong's communist forces in the Chinese civil war, retreated to Taiwan. The school's original purpose was to train political warfare officers and instill anti-communist conviction throughout the military's ranks.

Today the college is part of Taiwan's National Defense University, but its Cold War character remains visible. Large Chinese characters inside the hall where Lai spoke read "I regard the nation's rise or fall as my own personal responsibility," a phrase written by former president Chiang Kai-shek shortly before his death in 1975.

Chiang remains a deeply divisive figure in Taiwan. Many associate him with decades of authoritarian rule and political repression, while others credit him with steering Taiwan firmly away from communist control during one of the most dangerous periods of the Cold War.

.

Standing Firm Against Beijing

In his speech, Lai also urged the graduates to reject communism outright and to insist that the Republic of China (Taiwan's official name) and the People's Republic of China are not subordinate to one another — a direct rebuttal of Beijing's claim that Taiwan is merely a breakaway province awaiting "reunification."

The stance reflects Lai's broader approach since taking office: framing Chinese pressure not as a routine territorial dispute, but as an active campaign to dismantle Taiwan's democratic institutions from within. Supporters of Taiwan's sovereignty, including Falun Dafa practitioners who have long documented the Chinese Communist Party's human rights record, have welcomed this clearer language distinguishing the island's democratic system from Communist Party rule on the mainland.

Tuesday's ceremony also carried an international dimension. Diplomats from Belize, Guatemala, and Paraguay — three of the small number of countries that maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan — attended, alongside a representative from Jordan, which has no official relations with Taipei but retains historic military links dating back to the Cold War.

.

What Comes Next

Taiwan's counterintelligence push is unlikely to ease soon. Officials in Taipei have said they expect Chinese recruitment efforts to continue evolving, shifting from simple intelligence-gathering toward psychological pressure campaigns aimed at undermining morale within the ranks.

With Beijing showing no sign of softening its rhetoric or military posture, and Washington continuing to back Taiwan's right to determine its own future, Lai's message to this year's graduating class is likely to set the tone for how Taiwan's military approaches loyalty, vigilance, and resistance to Chinese influence in the years ahead.

.

Sources:

1. https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/06/30/2003859998
2. https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/13/china/taiwan-surge-suspected-chinese-espionage-hnk-intl
3. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2604991/world
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Hsing_Kang_College
5. https://www.rfa.org/english/china/2025/02/17/china-taiwan-army-officer-defect/

.