Rare Beijing Spy Series Brings Real-Life Intelligence Drama With Taiwan to the Screen

Mainland China’s intelligence battle with Taiwan has reached prime-time television in a rare series produced under Beijing’s top counter-espionage agency. CCTV began airing The Long Watch on Sunday, bringing two decades of espionage into a 40-episode drama.

The series covers operations from 1998 to 2018, including attempts by both sides to recruit each other’s operatives, place agents and carry out assassination and protection missions. Mainland Chinese spy dramas have seldom addressed contemporary espionage across the Taiwan Strait over the past decade, making the subject unusually prominent.

The production was overseen by the Ministry of State Security. Xinhua reported that the production team made repeated visits to national security agencies for immersive field research, subject to confidentiality requirements. Screenwriter Wang Xiaoqiang told mainland media that the drama was adapted from archival material linked to more than 20 real-life national security cases.

The Long Watch quickly drew an audience, topping television ratings in its time slot on Sunday. Its storyline also invokes a politically sensitive episode involving former Taiwanese leader Lee Teng-hui. In a 1994 interview with Japanese journalists, Lee expressed sorrow at “being born a Taiwanese and not being able to do anything for Taiwan.” Beijing widely viewed the remark as suggesting that a distinct Taiwanese identity existed separately from China, prompting intense anger.

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being born a Taiwanese and not being able to do anything for Taiwan