Role in The KMT
As the Chief of the Kuomintang (KMT) Army secret service in China, Dai Li helped to develop China's modern intelligence organization in 1928, "Clandestine Investigation Section" directly under the Northern Expeditionary Army's Headquarters with the aims of an early victory of the war to quell the nationwide unrest and minimize the loss of life by making the most of military and political intelligence. By the end of the Second Sino-Japanese war, this small section would evolve to the very complex and controversial Investigation and Statistics Bureau of Chinese National Military Council, which is the predecessor of the Military Intelligence Bureau under the Chief of General Staff, ROC Ministry of National Defense in Taiwan.
The benign title of The Investigation and Statistics Bureau belied the true nature of its secret police work, making Dai one of the most contradicted, maybe fearsome men in China, and earning him the nickname "the Himmler of China". Dai was also the head of the Blue Shirts Society, a fascist organization that did security and intelligence work for Chiang. In 1930s and 1940s, his agents from Military-Statistics Bureau were very successful at penetrating the Chinese Communist and Imperial Japanese puppet organizations.
Dai worked with the United States during World War II and was taught new methods of espionage, and his guerrilla force grew to 70,000 men. In return for this partnership, he made available maps of the South China coast, intelligence on Japanese maneuvers and a safe haven for downed Allied aircrew. After the signing of the SACO Treaty in 1942, Dai was placed as head of Sino-American intelligence activities.
While he avoided public entertainments and remained a mysterious figure to his countrymen, Dai was privately known for his wild drinking parties.
Read more about this topic: Dai Li
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