New | Taiwan and mainland China's spy swap a sign of how far cross-strait ties have improved under Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou's rule
First cross-strait swap of three agents likely a favour to conclude Ma Ying-jeou's presidency during which ties have improved, analyst says
A swap between Beijing and Taipei of three jailed spies - announced yesterday, just weeks after the two sides' leaders met at a historic summit - is testament to Taiwan's improved ties with the mainland under Ma Ying-jeou's presidency, analysts said.
Beijing released Colonel Zhu Gongxun and Colonel Xu Changguo of Taiwan's Military Intelligence who had held behind bars for more than nine years, after Taiwan gave advance parole to mainland spy Li Zhichao, a statement from Ma's office said.
The news comes less than a month after Ma and President Xi Jinping met in Singapore on November 7. It was the first meeting between the two sides' leaders in 66 years after the Communist Party defeated the Kuomintang, which fled to Taiwan, during the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Zhu and Xu were returned to Taiwan in mid-October, Taiwan's defence ministry said. It was the first time the two sides had officially exchanged their captives.
"This is based on a mutual goodwill gesture delivered by the Ma-Xi meeting," Ma's spokesman, Charles Chen, said.
There are more than 100 Taiwanese spies imprisoned on the mainland, among whom Zhu and Xu were the highest-ranked. The most senior mainland spy in Taiwan, Major General Lo Hsien-chen, was still serving out his life sentence, Taiwanese newspaper reported.
