Chen Ming-tong

Chen Ming-tong (Chinese: 陳明通; pinyin: Chén Míngtōng; born 25 November 1955) is a Taiwanese politician and currently the Director-General of the National Security Bureau. He was the Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council from 2018 to 2021 and 2007 to 2008.

In this Chinese name, the family name is Chen.
Chen Ming-tong
陳明通
Director-General of the National Security Bureau
In office
23 February 2021 – 31 January 2023
PresidentTsai Ing-wen
Preceded byChiu Kuo-cheng
Succeeded byTsai Ming-yen
Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council
In office
19 March 2018 – 22 February 2021
Prime MinisterWilliam Lai
Su Tseng-chang
DeputyChiu Chui-cheng
Lee Li-chen
Preceded byKatharine Chang
Lin Cheng-yi (acting)
Succeeded byChiu Tai-san
In office
10 April 2007 – 20 May 2008
Prime MinisterSu Tseng-chang
Chang Chun-hsiung
Preceded byJoseph Wu
Succeeded byLai Shin-yuan
Deputy Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council
In office
20 May 2000 – 19 May 2004
MinisterTsai Ing-wen
Personal details
Born (1955-11-25) 25 November 1955
Taichung County, Taiwan
NationalityTaiwanese (Taiwan)
Political party Democratic Progressive Party
Alma materNational Taiwan University

Academic career

Chen obtained his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in political science from National Taiwan University (NTU) in 1979, 1981 and 1991, respectively. Chen worked as a researcher in the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission of the Taipei City Government in 1983-1984. After finishing his doctoral degree, he worked as associate professor followed by professor at the Graduate Institute of National Development of NTU from 1992 to 2000.

He was a thesis adviser to several politicians affiliated with the Democratic Progressive Party, including Chiu Chih-wei, Kao Chia-yu, Lin Chih-chien, Pan Men-an, and Shen Fa-hui.[1]

Political career

He led the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) between 2007 and 2008, then returned to NTU. In 2018, he succeeded Katharine Chang as MAC minister.[2][3]

National Security Bureau

In 2022, he publicly claimed on the basis of intelligence that China was not going to invade Taiwan within the next several years while Tsai Ing-wen remained in office and that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had caused the mainland to re-evaluate their military plans regarding Taiwan. He also claimed that Taiwan had some knowledge of what the makeup of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was going to be after the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party to be held later in 2022.[4]

His public revelation of this information was criticized by former army Major General Yu Beichen, he alleged that revealing such specific information put intelligence gathering in the mainland at risk.[5][6]

References
  1. Lin, Sean (26 July 2020). "KMT labels DPP officials plagiarists". Taipei Times. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  2. Huang, Jewel (17 April 2007). "Newsmaker: Chen Ming-tong is part of the strategy". Taipei Times. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  3. Hsu, Stacy (24 February 2018). "Reshuffle targets security, diplomacy". Taipei Times. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  4. China unlikely to invade Taiwan this fall: intelligence chief OCAC.R.O.C.(Taiwan) – News 2022/03/25
  5. 台湾情报首长陈明通有关台海安全和中共二十大报告：两个关注要点背后的一个关键要素, BBC中文, retrieved May 14th 2022
  6. TAIWAN - CHINA Taiwan’s intelligence chief says Beijing not likely to launch invasion next fall AsiaNews 03/25/2022
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