AAfter shaking off the men chasing her through the crowded market and emerging from the bathroom in disguise, the double agent appears to have escaped. But a sip of water on the plane eventually gets her through. She was poisoned after Taiwanese military intelligence discovered that she was secretly working for China.
The plot is taken from a new Chinese spy drama co-produced by the Ministry of State Security. Since its Sept. 6 premiere, it has become a television hit, presenting a fictionalized look at a topic rarely addressed so directly: the modern history of tensions with Taiwan.
The series, designed for 40 episodes, bears the official title. Long Watch in English or Jiaofeng, translated from Chinese means clash or “crossing of swords.” It chronicles two decades of espionage, double agents and intelligence operations between China and Taiwan starting in the mid-1990s.
Jiaofeng mixes fictional characters and places with real ones, such as Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. However, it remains difficult for analysts to verify how accurately the drama follows real events as new episodes continue to air.
While Taiwanese intelligence agencies are portrayed as adversaries capable of obtaining secret information about missiles, the drama portrays China’s national security officers as heroes protecting the country from infiltration and theft.
By creating these dramas, Chinese authorities are “essentially creating their own historical narrative,” says Li Fu-chung, a historian at National Taiwan Chengchi University whose research includes the history of the Chinese Communist Party and film history. “Through the dramatic format, people can be brainwashed very easily, not only in China, but possibly in Taiwan as well.”
The creators of the series, billed as being based on declassified national security cases, said they interviewed retired state security officers and reviewed 27 case files while developing the script.
About a week after its premiere, the series topped the daily primetime drama ratings on China Central Television five times. According to Chinese entertainment data provider Maoyan, the number of views across various platforms exceeded 50 million within a week.
Chinese viewers have described the series as unusually “brave” in its treatment of real political figures and its depiction of spy operations on both sides.
“One of the reasons why China has been doing more dramas on this topic in recent years is that espionage makes for good drama. Another reason is that they want to emphasize patriotism,” Li says.
“Because the story is about how Taiwan tries to turn Chinese officials into agents, there will be negative and positive characters. This contrast helps show who is a patriot and who is a traitor to the country,” Lee adds.
Spies, lies and cross-strait tensions
The first episode takes place in 1994. The first episode opens with a voice-over announcer playing over a cityscape in China, reporting that then-Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui had made remarks that “inflame separatist sentiment” and “undermine cross-strait relations.”
“This is truly bold!!! It’s exciting from every angle and really doesn’t shy away from anything,” one Chinese viewer wrote on microblogging platform Weibo, surprised by Li’s direct mention.
Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, is a self-governing democracy that Beijing claims as its territory even though it has never controlled the island.
Lee, who later became Taiwan’s first directly elected president, was viewed by Beijing as a major “separatist.” His visit to the United States sparked Chinese missile tests and military exercises that escalated into the Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1995-96, during which the United States sent aircraft carrier groups to waters near the island.
However, Jiaofeng is not the first Chinese state-backed spy drama to focus on cross-strait relations. Last year, another series called Quiet Honor, also produced under the direction of the Ministry of State Security, depicted espionage against the backdrop of the end of the Chinese civil war.
Despite the historical narratives, the show helps play into current events. In a commentary on Jiaofeng published on September 8, the state-run Global Times called cross-Strait espionage a “hidden front” and said that “the fighting on this front will only truly end when complete reunification of the motherland is achieved.”
On Chinese social media site RedNote, one user posted a video saying the drama taught him a hard lesson about the spy game. “One moment of misplaced trust, one casual conversation, or one flash of greed can be enough to trap you,” he said.
“It’s just propaganda”
However, so far the drama does not seem to have caused much commotion in Taiwan.
There is little discussion on social media, despite the series being available there through Chinese streaming service Tencent Video and on YouTube.
Last year, Taiwan’s own drama about cross-Strait security threats performed well and became the most-watched drama of the year. The government-subsidized series Zero Day Attack imagined the Chinese blockade and invasion, with storylines involving sleeper agents and media infiltration.
Annie Xie, a 26-year-old Taiwanese graduate student, had never heard of Jiaofeng; and she wouldn’t be interested in watching it, given the topic. “Who knows what they made of it,” she says.
Another Taiwanese graduate, Liang Tian-jun, said Chinese romance dramas were more popular among his peers, but “watching dramas will not make them feel more open or receptive to China.”
A poll last month found that only 7.4% of Taiwanese respondents had a favorable view of the Chinese Communist Party, down from 9.6% in July.
“At the end of the day, Taiwan is an open and free society, so some people will be influenced by propaganda coming across the Strait,” Lee says, “But most Taiwanese see it as just propaganda.”