Mao Renfeng 毛人鳳 | |
---|---|
Director of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics | |
In office 17 March 1946 – 11 December 1956 | |
President | Chiang Kai-shek |
Preceded by | Dai Li |
Personal details | |
Born | Hecun, Jiangshan, Zhejiang, Qing dynasty China | 5 January 1898
Died | 11 December 1956 Taipei, Taiwan | (aged 58)
Children | Robert Yu-Lang Mao |
Occupation | Intelligence Chief, Spymaster |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Republic of China |
Years of service | 1925–1956 |
Rank | General |
Battles/wars | Second Sino-Japanese War World War II Chinese Civil War |
Mao Renfeng (Chinese: 毛人鳳; Wade–Giles: Mao Jên-fêng; 5 January 1898 – 11 December 1956) was a Republic of China general and spymaster who headed the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (BIS, also known as the Counterintelligence Bureau and, after 1955, the Intelligence Bureau) from 1946 until his death, succeeding his childhood friend Dai Li, who died in a plane crash in 1946. Between 1946 and 1949, his spy agency played a prominent role in the Chinese Civil War. In 1949, he fled to Taiwan 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, began arresting and torturing the subordinates of General Sun Li-jen for being pro-American in an alleged coup against Chiang Kai-shek's regime, for collaborating with the Central Intelligence Agency to take control of Taiwan, and for declaring Taiwanese independence;[1][2][3] by October, more than 300 officers had been arrested and detained by the BIS and the Taiwan Garrison Command on charges of high treason 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 in the history of the White Terror.[4][3]
His son, Robert Yu-Lang Mao, is currently chairman of Hewlett-Packard China.[5]