Two Taiwan spies captured in China -magazine

TAIPEI, Aug 8 (Reuters) Chinese authorities have captured two Taiwan intelligence agents, a Hong Kong magazine reported, in an incident likely to embarrass the island as the number of foiled espionage cases grows.

The apprehension of the the agents near China's border with Vietnam, reported in the latest edition of Yazhou Zhoukan, comes after government sources in Beijing said China executed a Taiwan-employed spy in April.

The report said the two Military Intelligence Bureau captains were detained in the southwestern region of Guangxi in late May, making them the highest-ranking Taiwan agents ever caught in China. They had crossed from Vietnam in the hope of meeting informants from local police, but it turned out to be a trap.

The magazine said Chinese intelligence authorities in Guangxi had denied arresting the two men.

Taiwan's Defence Ministry and the Chinese cabinet spokesman's office had no immediate comment on the reports.

''Taiwan has never stopped these acts towards the mainland.

These incidents are very common,'' Xu Bodong, director of Taiwan research at Beijing Union University, said by telephone. ''They come in the name of Taiwan business people and then spy.'' China and Taiwan have been spying on each other since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. China claims Taiwan as its own and has vowed to attack the self-ruled democratic island if it formally declares statehood.

Despite the political animosity, trade and tourism have blossomed since the late 1980s and as many as a million Taiwan citizens live in China.

''Occasionally, China arrests groups of these businessmen and displays them to the press as 'Taiwanese agents','' said Wendell Minnick, a security expert with the Defense News.

''Normally they are released after a while.'' Taiwan security expert Andrew Yang said the latest case will come as an embarrassment for the island.

''It's an embarrassment to the intelligence community because this has happened before,'' Yang said. ''The intelligence community has to be very cautious and come up with some damage control, so this kind of incident never happens again.'' In April, China executed Tong Daning, who held a rank equivalent to one notch below assistant minister in the National Development and Reform Commission, for being a Taiwan spy.

In 1999, a Chinese major-general and a senior colonel were executed for selling state secrets to Taiwan, for 1.6 million dollars, in the biggest espionage scandal of the Communist era.

REUTERS MS DS1130