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Rare Beijing spy series highlights real-life intelligence drama with Taiwan
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Alcott Weiin BeijingPublished: 5:56pm, 7 Sep 2026
A television drama produced by Beijing’s top counter-espionage agency has put the spotlight on real-life cases in the high-stakes intelligence battle between mainland China and Taiwan.
Over the past decade, mainland Chinese spy dramas have rarely touched on contemporary espionage across the Taiwan Strait but on Sunday state broadcaster CCTV began airing a 40-episode television series about such intelligence efforts from 1998 to 2018.
Overseen by the Ministry of State Security, The Long Watch delves into two decades of attempts by both sides of the Taiwan Strait to turn each other’s operatives, plant agents and carry out assassination and protection missions.
00:44CIA targets Chinese military officers in new recruitment video“Subject to confidentiality requirements, the production team made repeated visits to the front line of national security agencies to conduct immersive field research,” state news agency Xinhua reported last Tuesday.
Screenwriter Wang Xiaoqiang told mainland media that the drama was adapted from archival material relating to more than 20 real-life declassified national security cases.
On Sunday, The Long Watch topped television ratings in its time slot.
Its storyline makes a reference to controversial remarks in 1994 by then Taiwanese leader Lee Teng-hui during an interview with Japanese journalists.
Lee at the time voiced sorrow over “being born a Taiwanese and not being able to do anything for Taiwan”. His comment was widely seen as expressing that a distinct Taiwanese identity existed separately from China, triggering intense anger in Beijing.
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