The organization was created in 1955 by a ROC Presidential Directive from
Chiang Kai-shek, to supervise and coordinate all security-related administrative organizations, military agencies and
KMT organizations in Taiwan. Earlier, the bureau was nicknamed "China's CIA" or "CCIA". The first Director-General of National Security Bureau was a three-star army general , with a background in military intelligence, who once was the deputy of the controversial
Bureau of Investigation and Statistics of the
National Military Council. (The "
Military-Statistics Bureau" served under
Dai Li, and even assumed command the "Military-Statistics Bureau" after the death of Dai Li in March 1946. As a result, the National Security Bureau is often seen as one of several successors to
the Military-Statistics Bureau.) Initially, National Security Bureau did not have its own field officers or operatives. However, in order to strengthen its ability to guide and coordinate other intelligence agencies, NSB soon developed its own field intelligence officers and training pool. The National Security Bureau was involved in the 1980 murder of lawyer and opposition politician Lin I-hsiung and his family.
Legalization On 1 January 1994, shortly after the respective organic laws of the
National Security Council and NSB were promulgated by the order of the ROC President
Lee Teng-hui on 30 December 1993, the National Security Bureau became a legal institution.
Recent events Though a few known intelligence failures of the National Security Bureau have surfaced in recent years, supporters have pointed out that the agency rarely, if ever, publicizes any successful operations. On 1 June 2000, a former NSB official who was a retired one-star army general made a personal visit to the
PRC and was detained three days later by the PRC
Ministry of State Security. A former chief cashier of NSB, Liu Kuan-chun (), was suspected of embezzling more than NT$192 million (US$5.65 million) from money returned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 4 April 1999. According to the National Bureau of Investigation, Ministry of Justice, Liu left the country on 3 September 2000, for
Shanghai, PRC. He reappeared in
Bangkok in January 2002 and then went to North America. Liu remains a fugitive. In the afternoon of 19 March 2004, President
Chen Shui-bian and Vice President
Annette Lu were
wounded by gunfire the day before the presidential election, while campaigning in Tainan in what would later to become known as the
March 19 shooting incident. Afterwards, the
Control Yuan impeached nine officials for dereliction of duty, including former National Security Bureau (NSB) chief Tsai Chao-ming () and former deputy chief of the NSB special service center Chiu Chung-nan (). The Control Yuan said in an impeachment report that the National Security Bureau had received information on 18 March 2004 about a possible attack on the president but did not take the report seriously. In 2004, former
US State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Donald W. Keyser was arrested by the
FBI for illegally handing over documents to two Taiwanese NSB officials who served as intelligence liaison officers in USA. Immediately, the director general of the NSB, General Hsueh Shih-ming, recalled crucial intelligence agents from the United States. The loyalty of NSB officials to the
Democratic Progressive Party is constantly questioned. Traditionally, career personnel of
law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and military organizations in Taiwan are labeled as
pan-blue because most of them have been lifelong
Kuomintang members. However, while the DPP is in power, the National Security Bureau has been attacked by the KMT and
People First Party for alleged abuses of power. Despite statements from several NSB Directors General on the political neutrality of the organization, some controversial events have still occurred. In 2004, Chen Feng-lin (), a colonel of the logistics department, Special Service Center, National Security Bureau, confessed that he leaked classified information regarding security measures at President
Chen Shui-bian's residence as well as the president's itinerary to Peng Tzu-wen (), a former director of the center who retired as a major general. Peng, a retired one-star general, revealed on TV that he would not "take a bullet for President Chen." In August 2005, Peng Tzu-wen was indicted for leaking national secrets on TV and for potentially putting Chen's life in jeopardy. In April 2025, the NSB reported an uptick in disinformation by the
Chinese Communist Party compared to the previous year, including increased use of artificial intelligence. ==Structure==