Minister sent to put out spy fire
Taiwan yesterday sent its foreign minister to the United States on a damage-control mission over alleged spying involving a former senior State Department official and Taiwanese agents based in Washington.
Foreign Minister Mark Chen Tan-sun, already scheduled to visit Grenada on an aid mission after a hurricane disaster, moved ahead his schedule by two days and left last night.
'He will make a stopover in the US city of Baltimore [tomorrow] for a working meeting with our foreign service officials there,' said Michel Lu Ching-lung, a Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Sources said executives of 13 Taiwanese offices in the US and three offices in Canada would attend the working meeting.
Taiwanese media reported that the island's National Security Bureau had recalled all intelligence agents, including a 34-year-old female agent identified as Chen Nien-tzu, said to have had contact with the American official.
Donald Keyser, 61, former assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, was charged on Wednesday with having concealed a visit to Taiwan.
He was also reported to have been caught by FBI agents passing documents to at least two Taiwanese agents, including a woman identified by Taiwanese media as the 34-year-old Ms Chen.
Mr Keyser, a former top adviser on China to US Secretary of State Colin Powell and known as a long-time friend of Taiwan, was released on a US$500,000 bond. No espionage charges have yet been brought against him.
Parris Chang, deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council, said yesterday Mr Keyser was merely handing over documents to explain US viewpoints clearly.
'I don't think those were secret documents,' he said.
