The Communist Party, whose skilful use of espionage helped defeat the Kuomintang more than 60 years ago, is now facing an ironic challenge: many senior officials have become spies for Taiwan and even foreign countries, a People's Liberation Army general has warned.
In a recent speech to staff of state-owned China Life, the largest insurance firm on the mainland, Major General Jin Yinan revealed details of eight senior officials' involvement in spying for Taiwan and foreign countries and criticised many younger party officials for just coveting power and material comforts.
Jin, a director of the strategic teaching and research department at the National Defence University, said that during the anti-communist campaigns of the 1920s and 30s, the party was almost destroyed by internal division, with many senior underground members surrendering themselves or even betraying comrades to the KMT in exchange for safety and a stable life.
Jin cited the surrenders of Gong Chu (one of the three top Red Army commanders along with Zhu De and Mao Zedong ) and Zhang Guotao (chairman of the party's first congress), and the betrayal by Zhu's former wife He Zhihua of one of the party's founders, Luo Yinong , to the then ruling KMT.
'He [Zhihua] joined with her then husband He Jiaxing to betray Luo. They were all party members. Why? Just because of two passports that would help them migrate to Germany, and US$3,000 of rewards [offered by KMT],' Jin said.
The couple were believed to be executed at their home in 1928 by the party's traitor-elimination unit, which was led by former premier Zhou Enlai. However, the wife was later found to have been rescued by the KMT and had only been blinded in one eye, but her whereabouts remain a mystery today.