Cai Mingyan, undersecretary of foreign affairs, will take over as head of the national security bureau.

(file photo)

Reporter Zhong Lihua/Feature

Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cai Mingyan will take over as the head of the National Security Bureau, breaking the spectacles of the outside world.

Cai Mingyan, who is a scholar of international politics and strategic studies, how to change from a diplomat to an "intelligence leader", collect and interpret various intelligence materials, and try to prevent China from increasing public opinion warfare, psychological warfare and legal warfare against me in recent years, as well as Beijing's efforts in Taiwan. Undoubtedly, it is a big challenge for the united front and infiltration.

International and Strategic Scholar

Cai Mingyan graduated from the doctoral class of the Institute of War Research, King's College, University of London. After returning to the country, he served in the Taiwan Research Institute chaired by former President Lee Teng-hui. Later, he turned to teach at Chung Hsing University. Director, Director of the Institute of International Politics.

It is worth mentioning that from 2004 to 2016, he served as an advisory member of the Ministry of Defense's "Quadrennial National Defense General Review", spanning the blue-green administration.

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After the Tsai administration came to power, it first arranged for him to serve as a director of the Vision Foundation outside the National Security Council. In 2017, it was officially recruited into the Tsai administration as the deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council.

However, his work in the National Security Council is still mainly dealing with foreign affairs and international situations, and has nothing to do with the National Security Bureau.

After leaving the National Security Council, Cai successively took over as the representative to the European Union and Belgium, and the deputy minister of foreign affairs, also in the field of diplomacy.

However, the National Security Bureau, nicknamed "On the Mountain", comprehensively manages national security intelligence work and performs special services. It is not only responsible for Chinese intelligence, but also includes international and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence work. Secret service work involves a wide range and complexity.

Cai Mingyan specializes in international strategy, CCP military, US policy, Asia-Pacific security, diplomatic and security decision-making, post-conflict national reconstruction theory, etc., and has long participated in the Taiwan-Japan and Taiwan-US track two security dialogues.

The president borrows Cai's international strategic and security decision-making expertise

Presidential Office Spokesperson Zhang Dunhan stated yesterday that President Tsai hopes to leverage on Cai Mingyan’s expertise in regional security, foreign affairs, international strategy, and security decision-making to assist the national security team in interpreting cross-strait and regional situations and making precise decisions, and to continue to promote the intelligence system. In the era of democratization, we will continue to strengthen the governance and innovation of intelligence and governance agencies.

In fact, during President Tsai’s second term, he boldly challenged the employment culture of the intelligence system and appointed non-military personnel as the director of the National Security Bureau.