Draft:Taipei Detention Center, Counterintelligence Bureau Ministry of National Defense

The Taipei Detention Center, affiliated to the Counterintelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense and commonly referred to as the "South Center" or "City Detention Center," was established around 1948. Situated within the current grounds of the Ministry of National Defense Reserve Command's Chung Ai Camp, the center was tasked with detaining individuals awaiting trial,  serving as a facility for confinement and interrogation. Initially under the Counterintelligence Bureau, it was transferred to the Intelligence Bureau in 1955 due to organizational restructuring and subsequently relocated in 1968. The Taipei Detention Center was notorious not only for its extremely overcrowded conditions but also for allegations of torture and the fabrication of charges. It had confined notable dissidents, including Chu Hsien-chi, Feng Shou-er, and Kuo Ting-liang.

History
In 1931, Chiang Kai-shek convened military personnel and students from the Huangpu Military Academy to establish the covert organization "Fuxing Society." By March 1932, the Fuxing Society was formally established, with Dai Li appointed as the director of the Secret Service Office. In September of the same year, in order to prevent competition between the Investigation Section of the party’s central organization and the Fuxing Society, Chiang Kai-shek founded the Investigation and Statistics Bureau, under the Military Affairs Committee. The Secret Service Office was placed under this bureau and renamed the "Second Section, Investigation and Statistics Bureau," tasked with handling intelligence and personnel training.

In August 1938, the Investigation and Statistics Bureau underwent reorganization. The First Section was expanded and restructured into the "Central Executive Committee Investigation and Statistics Bureau" of the Nationalist Party(Kuomintang), commonly known as the Central Bureau of Statistics (Central Bureau). The Second Section was sustained under the Military Affairs Committee Investigation and Statistics Bureau, abbreviated as the Military Bureau of Statistics (Military Bureau).

In August 1946, the Military Affairs Committee was restructured into the Ministry of National Defense. Responding to calls from various political groups and public opinion to dismantle the control of secret agents, the Military Bureau of Statistics was reorganized and downsized into the Counterintelligence Bureau, under the Department of Intelligence of the Ministry of National Defense.

In 1949, following the government's relocation to Taiwan, the primary organization of the Military Bureau of Statistics also made the move. In September of that year, the Counterintelligence Bureau established its headquarters in Zhishanyan, Shilin Town, Taipei City. The bureau continued its operations, focusing on intelligence warfare against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), confidentiality, counter-espionage, and the consolidation of leadership. It comprised specialized units for guerrilla operations, actions, intelligence, psychological warfare, telecommunications, and affiliated units, with a total personnel strength of 3,316, working in the back offices and in the fields.

Throughout the era of authoritarian rule, the Counterintelligence Bureau held a pivotal role as an intelligence agency. During its early years, it played a crucial part in resolving major political cases, including those involving the Chinese Communist Party Taiwan Provincial Work Committee in the 1950s, the Taipei City Work Committee, the Luku Base, and notable figures like Sun Li-jen.

In March 1955, the official establishment of the National Security Bureau aimed to lead the task restructure for various intelligence agencies. The Counterintelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense underwent reorganization, transforming into the Military Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense. This new entity specialized in executing tasks related to strategic warning intelligence, information gathering and analysis. Thus the responsibilities of surveillance and other tasks were transferred to the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice.

The Taipei Detention Center was established around 1948 and was originally situated at 2, Lane 133, Yanping S. Rd. The facility repurposed buildings acquired from the Taiwan Provincial Security Command to function as a prison. During the Japanese colonial period, the site served as the Taipei Garrison Prison under the Taiwan Military Command. Political detainees commonly referred to this location as the "South Center" or "City Detention Center."

The Taipei Detention Center had the responsibility of detaining individuals awaiting trial, serving the purposes of confinement and interrogation. Detainees were cut off from any contact with the outside world. In order to extract confessions, intelligence agencies employed harsh interrogation methods, including fatigue interrogation, physical abuse such as inserting needles under fingernails of the detainees. Gu Cheng-wen, who led the Counterintelligence Bureau's Interrogation Division, once cited the horrifying conditions of Huang Tian's interrogation as an example.

In the early 1950s, the facility also began functioning as a prison for political detainees. In 1955, due to organizational restructuring of the Counterintelligence Bureau, it became affiliated to the Intelligence Bureau, Ministry of National Defense.

In the 1960s, as the Taiwan Garrison Command's Security Department prepared to relocate from its office on Xining S. Rd. due to a property transaction, the Ministry of National Defense instructed the Intelligence Bureau to transfer the buildings on the camp in Bo’ai Rd. to the Security Department in 1967. In 1968, the Intelligence Bureau vacated the premises. Today the original building has been demolished, and the site is part of the Reserve Command's Chung Ai Camp of the Ministry of National Defense (No. 172 Bo'ai Rd.).

Spatiality
According to records from the Intelligence Bureau,  In 1962, the Taipei Detention Center was situated in a building covering an area of 936 square meters. This space comprised a prison area of 397 square meters, a courtroom of 99 square meters (including two interrogation rooms), and the remaining 400 square meters were designated for offices, barracks of officials and soldiers, kitchen, dining hall, and reception room, etc. The Taipei Detention Center was a two-story reinforced concrete building with one basement level, featuring approximately 20 detention rooms. The detention area included a middle corridor, with narrow and elongated detention rooms on either side. The door, floor, and ceiling of each detention room were constructed from wood, while the three walls were made of cement. The back wall had iron-barred windows. The cell door, referred to as the "Tiger Head Door," was only 1.5 meters high, necessitating detainees to stoop when entering or exiting. There was a small opening below the door for meal delivery, a surveillance opening on the wall next to the door, and a small light bulb installed at the center of the ceiling.

Each detention room, with only 3.7 to 7.4 square meters, was packed with 20 to 30 inmates. In the extremely crowded and stale place, inmates must take turns standing or lying down. And the confined space with the odors of sweat and excrement, negatively impacted the mental well-being of the prisoners.

The food provided by the detention center typically consisted of nothing but thin rice porridge with a small amount of peanuts. Occasionally, they may receive steamed buns or soy milk, with side dishes limited to wax gourd soup or water spinach. Consequently, the inmates often experienced inadequate nutritional intake.