Mao Renfeng (; 5 January 1898 – 11 December 1956) was a Republic of China general and

spymaster A spymaster is the person that leads a spy ring, or a secret service (such as an intelligence agency). Historical spymasters See also *List of American spies *List of British spies * List of German spies *List of fictional spymasters This ...

who headed the

Bureau of Investigation and Statistics The National Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (Military Commission), (NBIS or BIS) (), commonly known as Juntong (), was the military intelligence agency of the Republic of China before 1946. It was devoted to intelligence gathering and co ...

(BIS, also known as the Counterintelligence Bureau and, after 1955, the Intelligence Bureau) from 1946 until his death, succeeding his childhood friend

Dai Li Lieutenant General Dai Li (Tai Li; ; May 28, 1897 – March 17, 1946) was a Chinese spymaster. His courtesy name was Yunong (雨農). Born Dai Chunfeng (Tai Chun-feng; 戴春風) in Bao'an, Jiangshan, Zhejiang province, he studied at the W ...

, who died in a plane crash in 1946. Between 1946 and 1949, his spy agency played a prominent role in the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

. In 1949, he fled to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

with the rest of the Nationalist government, where he died 7 years later. Beginning on 25 May 1955, Mao's BIS secret agents, in conjunction with political warfare officers and

military police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...

, began arresting and torturing the subordinates of General

Sun Li-jen Sun Li-jen (; December 8, 1900November 19, 1990) was a Chinese Nationalist (KMT) general, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, best known for his leadership in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. His military achiev ...

for being pro-American in an alleged coup against Chiang Kai-shek's regime, for collaborating with the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

to take control of Taiwan, and for declaring

Taiwanese independence The Taiwan independence movement is a political movement which advocates the formal declaration of an independent and sovereign Taiwanese state, as opposed to Chinese unification or the status quo in Cross-Strait relations. Currently, Tai ...

; by October, more than 300 officers had been arrested and detained by the BIS and the

Taiwan Garrison Command The Taiwan Garrison Command () was a secret police/national security body which existed under the Republic of China Armed Forces on Taiwan. The agency was established at the end of World War II, and operated throughout the Cold War. It was d ...

on charges of high

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

for conspiring with Communist spies to stage a coup. General Sun was also placed under house arrest for 33 years until 20 March 1988, which was one of the cases of

political persecution Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...

in the history of the

White Terror White Terror is the name of several episodes of mass violence in history, carried out against anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, revolutionaries, or other opponents by conservative or nationalist groups. It is sometimes contrasted wit ...

. His son, Robert Yu-Lang Mao, is currently chairman of Hewlett-Packard China.

References

1898 births 1956 deaths Taiwanese people from Zhejiang People from Jiangshan Politicians from Quzhou Republic of China politicians from Zhejiang Members of the Kuomintang Spymasters {{Taiwan-bio-stub