There must be literally thousands of Chinese spies in Taiwan, not counting KMT sympathizers.

Regarding KMT sympathizers, I think one of my posts we lost in the recent meltdown was regarding the historic KMT/military relationship, and resulting pro-China leaning of the Taiwan military. I mentioned this in that lost (I think) posting, so apologies for any redundancy, but...

When I taught English at a military academy in Taiwan, I once heard the class leader announce to the class (all officers) that if Taiwan declared independence, he would fight for China. Wow, I thought to myself. I knew then (and this was 30 years ago... guess I should have mentioned that).. I knew then that this was the military's stance, so it did not surprise me that any officers would feel this way, but to announce it publicly on a base did surprise me a bit, given the changes that were happening at the time.

I suspect things have changed a lot since then, but there's still that old guard who still view China as theirs, or at least home. It's an extremely complicated situation.

The question is, to what extent will Taiwan's military actually defend Taiwan? What is the current mindset of the military?

Yeah - it's a worry. Until recently - like our lifetimes in Taiwan - being a KMT spy was a normal, decent-paying public service department job. How many of those are burning with resentment - ready to activate?

It is the official military report - so it shows that they are aware of it. Presumably reforming it - or trying hard to. It's a high-stakes game of 'Who can you trust?' for any DPP govt and the generals.

Taiwan also knows a thing or two about computers and cyber stuff. They wouldn't be sitting around innocently waiting for a first-strike before thinking how to cyber-attack China back.