The French connection to Chinese intelligence

Roger Faligot, author of several books on intelligence agencies such as the CIA, KGB and MI5, discusses his recent book on China’s spy agency

By Jason Pan / Staff reporter





Roger Faligot, a specialist on the world’s most secretive intelligence agencies, was recently in Taiwan to find a publisher to translate into Chinese and release his The Chinese Secret Service, from Mao to 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a book that was published in 2008.

Faligot is no stranger to the intelligence community and espionage. He has published dozens of books on the worlds’ security services, including the KGB, CIA, MI6, French intelligence agency DGSE and, of course, the Chinese secret service.

CLANDESTINE WORLD

French author and renowned expert on leading international espionage networks Roger Faligot was in Taipei last month to talk to book publishers in Taiwan. Photo: Jason Pan, Taipei Times

The Chinese Secret Service lifts the veil on the history of the Chinese intelligence organization, from its early years to its modern transformation into an effective, fearsome force in the form of the Ministry of State Security (國安部).

It details mass purges, assassinations, double-cross betrayals, ideological battles, political manipulation, domestic and foreign operations by Chinese intelligence through high-profile figures such as Zhou Enlai (周恩來), Kang Sheng (康生), Chen Yun (陳雲), Li Kenong (李克農) and Wang Dongxing (汪東興).

Faligot says that in having the book translated into Chinese, he hopes that it will be read on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

“The publication could be part of the intellectual debates that are bound to become more and more important in China and in Taiwan. I think in Beijing the governmental circles understand that if I write a big history of the intelligence and security services, it is because from now on China must be considered on that level just as important as it is on the economic or diplomatic level,” he said, adding that he hopes to interview Geng Huichang (耿惠昌), China’s minister for State Security.

PIRATED BOOKS

Faligot has other motivations for publishing the book in Chinese. He said that an earlier book on the French secret service, La Piscine: The French Secret Service Since 1944, appeared in a Chinese-language version in the mid 1980s that was published by a company under the Chinese Ministry of People’s Security, “without my permission, without buying the rights from my publisher,” he said.

“lt was a pirated edition in Chinese, and it was organized by the security ministry.”

In 2007, Faligot approached the publishing house for a copy, but was refused because it is “forbidden to foreigners.”

“In other words, the book I had written was forbidden to me,” he said.

Faligot believes that now that China has joined the WTO, this kind of thing would be impossible, “or at least I could sue them now for piracy before Chinese courts.”

He said that when he published his first book on Chinese intelligence, it was in the 1980s when Beijing only had regional influence.

“Today it acts as a world economic, political and diplomatic power. So it’s the right time for the Chinese translation,” Faligot said.

He added that he’s certain that Xi Jinping (習近平) will further modernize Beijing’s intelligence community, citing as an example the establishment of a new National Security Commission, which he is personally presiding over.

“[Xi] is also probably re-organizing the Chinese intelligence community following the crisis generated by the downfall of Bo Xilai (薄熙來) and Zhou Yongkang (周永康),” he said.