National Security Bureau (Taiwan)

National Security Bureau

國家安全局 Guójiā Ānquán Jú ( Republic of China
Entrance of the Headquarters of the Ministry of Justice
Agency overview
Formed	1 March 1955
Preceding agency	Bureau of Investigation and Statistics
Jurisdiction	Republic of China (Taiwan)
Headquarters	Shilin, Taipei
Motto	安如磐石 (As secure as a rock)
Agency executives	Tsai Ming-yen, Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍), Kuo Chung-hsin (郭崇信), Wang Teh-ling (王德麟), Deputy Directors-General
Parent agency	National Security Council
Website	www.nsb.gov.tw

The National Security Bureau (NSB; Chinese: 國家安全局; pinyin: Guójiā Ānquán Jú) is the principal intelligence agency of Taiwan.

History

The organization was created in 1955 by a ROC Presidential Directive from Chiang Kai-shek, to supervise and coordinate all security-related administrative organizations, military agencies and KMT organizations in Taiwan. Earlier, the bureau was nicknamed "China's CIA" or "CCIA".

The first Director-General of National Security Bureau was a three-star army general

.)

Initially, National Security Bureau did not have its own field officers or operatives. However, in order to strengthen its ability to guide and coordinate other intelligence agencies, NSB soon developed its own field intelligence officers and training pool.

The National Security Bureau was involved in the 1980 murder of lawyer and opposition politician Lin I-hsiung and his family.^[1]

Legalization

On 1 January 1994, shortly after the respective organic laws of the

on 30 December 1993, the National Security Bureau became a legal institution.

Recent events

Though a few known intelligence failures of the National Security Bureau have surfaced in recent years, supporters have pointed out that the agency rarely, if ever, publicizes any successful operations.

On 1 June 2000, a former NSB official

Ministry of State Security

.

A former chief cashier of NSB, Liu Kuan-chun (劉冠軍), was suspected of embezzling more than NT$192 million (US$5.65 million) from a batch of money returned from Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 4 April 1999. According to the National Bureau of Investigation, Ministry of Justice, Liu left the country on 3 September 2000, for Shanghai, PRC. He reappeared in Bangkok in January 2002 and then went to North America. Liu is still on the run.^[3]

In the afternoon of 19 March 2004, President

impeached nine officials for dereliction of duty. [4] Among those were former National Security Bureau (NSB) chief Tsai Chao-ming (蔡朝明), former deputy chief of the NSB special service center Chiu Chung-nan (邱忠男). The Control Yuan said in an impeachment report that the National Security Bureau had received information on 18 March 2004 about a possible attack on the president, but did not take the report seriously.^[5]

In 2004, former

The loyalty of NSB officials to the

People First Party

for alleged abuses of power. Despite statements from several NSB Directors General on the political neutrality of the organization, some controversial events have still occurred.

In 2004, Chen Feng-lin (陳鳳麟), a colonel of the logistics department, Special Service Center, National Security Bureau, confessed[7] that he leaked classified information regarding security measures at President Chen Shui-bian's residence as well as the president's itinerary to Peng Tzu-wen (彭子文), a former director of the center who retired as a major general. Peng, a retired one-star general, revealed on TV that he would not "take a bullet for President Chen." In August 2005, Peng Tzu-wen was indicted^[8] for leaking national secrets on TV and for potentially putting Chen's life in jeopardy.

Structure

The National Security Bureau is subordinate to the

(NSC). Under the chain of command, the NSC is under the direct administration of the President. However, the Director-General of the National Security Bureau usually can and does report directly to the President, bypassing the NSC.

Chiefs

Traditionally, the successive bureau chiefs were exclusively military officers with the rank of three-star general, though this has changed in recent years. In 2003, President Chen Shui-bian appointed Wang Ginn-wang, a former Director-General of National Police Agency with a career police background, to the post of NSB Deputy Director-General. In 2007, Shi Hwei-yow, a former judge from the Taipei district court, former Director-General of the Coast Guard Administration, and at the time the Deputy Director-General of NSB, replaced a three-star army general (Hsueh Shih-ming) as the first civilian Director-General of National Security Bureau.

Field Divisions

As result of institutionalizing operations, the NSB now has six intelligence-related divisions --

1. International intelligence
2. Intelligence within the area of
   People's Republic of China
3. Intelligence within the area of Taiwan
4. Analysis of the nation's strategic intelligence
5. Scientific and technological intelligence and telecommunications security
6. Control and development of secret codes (the matrix) and facilities
7. Armed Forces
   Internet Security

Centers

Also, there are three centers:

1. Special Service Command Center: Presidential Security and Protection
2. Telecommunication Technology Center (Code Name: Breeze Garden, or zh:清風園)
3. Training Center

Oversight

This is also a special feature of the NSB since martial law was lifted. In addition to managing intelligence relevant to national security, it also takes charge of planning special tasks and is responsible for guiding, coordinating, and supporting the intelligence affairs in military and civil categories:

Military

The

Ministry of National Defense

(MND)

Office of Telecommunication Development, General Staff Headquarters,

Ministry of National Defense

(MND)

Ministry of National Defense

(MND)

The Military Security General Corps, General Staff Headquarters, MND (Formerly, the Counter Intelligence General Corps of General Political Warfare Bureau, NMD)^[9]

Ministry of National Defense

(MND)

Civil

The

National Police Agency

of the Ministry of the Interior

The National Immigration Agency of the Ministry of the Interior

Bureau of Investigation

of the Ministry of Justice

The

Coast Guard Administration of Executive Yuan

.

Directors-General

• Cheng Chieh-ming [zh] (August 1954 – 11 December 1959)
• Chen Ta-ching (12 December 1959 – 30 November 1962)'
• Hsia Chi-ping [zh] (1 December 1962 – 30 June 1967)
• Chou Chung-feng (1 July 1967 – 30 June 1972)
• Wang Yung-shu (1 July 1972 – 30 November 1981)
• Wang Ching-hsu [zh] (1 December 1981 – 14 December 1985)
• Song Hsin-lien [zh] (15 December 1985 – 31 July 1993)
• Yin Tsung-wen [zh] (1 August 1993 – 31 January 1999)
• Ting Yu-chou [zh] (1 February 1999 – 15 August 2001)
• Tsai Chao-ming (16 August 2001 – 31 March 2004)
• Hsueh Shih-ming (1 April 2004 – 6 February 2007)
• Shi Hwei-yow [zh] (7 February 2007 – 19 June 2008)
• Tsai Chao-ming (20 June 2008 – 10 March 2009)
• Tsai De-sheng (11 March 2009 – 11 May 2014; acting until 30 April 2009)
• Lee Shying-jow (12 May 2014 – 23 July 2015)
• Yang Kuo-chiang (24 July 2015 – 25 October 2016)^[10]
• Peng Sheng-chu (26 October 2016 – 22 July 2019)^[11]
• Ko Cheng-heng (23 July 2019) (acting)^[12]
• Chiu Kuo-cheng (24 July 2019 – 22 February 2021)^[13]
• Chen Ming-tong (23 February 2021 – 31 January 2023)
• Tsai Ming-yen (31 January 2023 – present)

See also

• National Security Council (Taiwan)

References

External links

• Official website (in Chinese)