Rare Beijing spy series highlights real-life intelligence drama with Taiwan

A 40-episode television series produced by Beijing’s top counter-espionage agency, CCTV, has highlighted real-life intelligence drama across the Taiwan Strait between mainland China and Taiwan. The drama, titled "The Long Watch," aired from Sunday, diving into espionage efforts from 1998 to 2018. The series was overseen by the Ministry of State Security and drew from archival materials related to more than 20 real-life declassified cases.

The first two episodes depicted the exposure of a covert source in Taiwan’s intelligence agencies working for the mainland, leading to tensions that escalated across the Taiwan Strait. The storyline references controversial remarks by Taiwanese leader Lee Teng-hui in 1994, which expressed a distinct Taiwanese identity separate from China.

This comment sparked anger in Beijing and heightened tensions. While most countries, including the United States and Japan, do not recognize Taiwan as an independent state, the U.S. opposes any attempt to forcibly reunite the island with mainland China and provides it with weapons. Beijing's shift in acknowledging espionage operations across the Taiwan Strait is clear, as seen in the groundbreaking "Silent Honour" which documented Communist Party espionage in Taiwan since 1949.

Tensions in the strait are escalating, with Taiwan's leader William Lai Ching-te calling Beijing a "hostile foreign force" and proposing 17 security measures. A total of 202 people were indicted for allegedly engaging in espionage for mainland China between 2020 and April 2026, according to Taiwan’s National Security Bureau. Beijing denies these allegations.