Eye Spy - May 2018

EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 115 2018 57

A satellite phone, shortwave receiver,

radios and modified tennis racquets to

hide items and documents, were found

at the Anschlags home (below) in

Meckenheim, Marburg

work and operated as liaison or contact

agents for associates in Europe and America.

Some evidence suggests they also communi-

cated with the SVR spy ring in New York,

which was broken by the FBI in 2010.

In July 2013, they were found guilty of

espionage by a court in Stuttgar t where they

were addressed as ‘Pit’ and ‘Tina’. Andreas

was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in

prison, while his wife was given a five-and-a-

half-year sentence. It’s not clear why Heidrun

was set free halfway through her prison

sentence.

According to intelligence sources, Heidrun’s

premature release could have been the result

of a secret deal involving captured agents of

Russia and the West. The persons involved in

this exchange remain unidentified.

he exchange of spies is not confined to

the West and East, it is a global activity.

TSome events are localised others are

THE MAN IN BLACK

conducted through third parties.

An example of the international dimension of

such exchanges can be found in a 2015 case

involving the intelligence agencies of China

and Taiwan. Here both nations, through

protracted negotiations involving so-called

‘third par ties’ agreed to free a number of jailed

spies.

The exchange was the first since the rivals

split in 1949 at the end of the civil war. Beijing

freed Chu Kung-hsun and Hsu Chang-kuo, the

highest-ranking intelligence agents to be jailed

in China after they were imprisoned in 2006.

The release of the pair, who were held on

espionage charges, was in exchange for a

Chinese double agent, Li Zhihhao, who was

jailed by Taiwan 16-years ago and sentenced

to life in prison. He was known in the

intelligence world as ‘the man in black’.

Taiwan’s Military Intelligence Bureau con-

firmed the spy swap, which coincided with the

appointment of Chen Wenqing as head of

China’s intelligence service under the Ministry

of State Security. Despite the act of goodwill,

the CIA estimate upto 250 alleged Taiwanese

spies are still being held in China. No doubt in

The Unsung Heroes Memorial Square in Beijing’s Western Hills. At the centre of the

monument is the stone likeness of four people considered ‘martyrs’ by China, along

with the names of 846 people. All were agents sent to Taiwan to spy on Chiang

Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces after they lost to the Communists during the civil war in

1949. The Taiwanese military captured the four agents the following year, and,
      together with the 846 other agents, they were executed

future days,

some will be

used as

‘bargaining

chips’ when

Chinese agents

are rumbled.

The dangers of

espionage are

evidenced in

this part of the world. China claims that of

1,500 agents sent to Taiwan since 1950, a

staggering 1,100 were caught and duly

executed. A granite memorial to the spies was

built in 2013 on the outskirts of Beijing and

includes the names of 850 deceased agents,

with sufficient blank spaces to insert other

names once their fate has been deduced.

© CHINA NEWS SERVICE

Communist Party agents Zhu Feng (far left) and Wu Shi (holding a pen) in front of a

Taiwanese military court after receiving their death sentences on 10 June 1950

© HSU CHUNG MAO

Chen

Wenqing