Wendell Minnick, Asia Bureau Chief, Defense News

Wendell Minnick (顏文德), B.S., M.A., is an author, commentator, journalist and speaker who has spent two decades covering military and security issues in Asia, including one book on intelligence and over 900 articles.

Since 2006, Minnick has served as the Asia Bureau Chief for Defense News, a Washington-based defense weekly newspaper.

From 2000-2006, he served as the Taiwan Correspondent for UK-based Jane's Defence Weekly.

Articles - Personal Favorites:

Chinese IT Firm Accused of Links to Cyberwarfare

Chinese Spy Radio?

Cows Expose Taiwan Intel Base

Did China’s Spies Penetrate Taiwan Networks?

Ex-PACOM Official Convicted of Spying for China

Japan Adds Spy Bases To Watch China
N. Korea Hones Commando Delivery Skills From Sea
Old Docs, New Images Reveal China Spy Base

Spook Mountain: How US Spies on China

Taiwan Arrests Yet Another Alleged Spy

Taiwan Modernizes, Streamlines Spec Ops   

Taiwan's Military Will Fire Blanks

The Men in Black: How Taiwan Spies on China

U.S. Lawmakers Wary of Chinese Telecom

Year to Fear for Taiwan

He is widely quoted on defense and military issues by the international media, including AFP, Aljazeera, Associated Press, BBC, Deutsche Welle, New York Times, Reuters, Sky News and The Wall Street Journal.

China Speakers Bureau

Minnick is available for speaking engagements in both Asia and elsewhere. Please contact the China Speakers Bureau for more information.

Defense News

2006-Present

In 2006, Minnick was appointed the first Asia Bureau Chief for Defense News. He has written over 650 articles for Defense News. A bibliography of Defense News articles can be viewed here.

Based in Washington, D.C., the Defense News Media Group is a leading publisher of business-to-business defense trade periodicals including Defense News, Armed Forces Journal, C4ISR – The Journal of Net-Centric Warfare and Training and Simulation Journal. Defense News is published once a week in newspaper format and is the largest defense publication in the world.

Minnick on a Taiwan Coast Guard vessel landing at Dongyin Island north of Matsu Island.

Air Shows and Defense Exhibition Coverage

Since 2000, Minnick has covered the following air shows/defense exhibitions and conferences in the region:

Aero India - 2007, 2009, 2011.
China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition (Zhuhai Airshow) - 2006, 2010, 2012.
Defence Services Asia (DSA-Kuala Lumpur) - 2008.
Defence Technology Asia International Conference and Exhibition (Singapore).
Dubai Airshow - 2007, 2009.
Global Security Asia - 2007.
International Defence Exhibition (IDEX-Abu Dhabi) - 2007.
International Maritime Defense Exhibition (IMDEX-Singapore) - 2007, 2009.
Japan-U.S. Security Strategy Conference - 2006.
Singapore Air Show - 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012.
Seoul Air Show - 2009.
Shangri-La Dialogue (IISS - Singapore) - 2008-Media, 2009-Delegate, 2010-Delegate, 2011-Delegate, 2012-Media.
Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition (TADTE) - 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011.
U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference - 2006 - Speaker.

Jane’s

2000-2006

From 2000-2006, Minnick served as the first Taiwan Correspondent for UK-based Jane’s Defence Weekly. He wrote over 250 articles for a variety of Jane’s publications:

Minnick also contributed data to Jane’s Fighting Ships and other Jane's Yearbooks. View a complete bibliography here

With a female Taiwanese Special Forces instructor at an airborne mountain training facility

Early Writing Career

1988-2000

Minnick began his writing career researching and writing about Cold War espionage and covert operations for a variety of publications.

In 1992, Minnick published his first book: Spies and Provocateurs: A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Persons Conducting Espionage and Covert Action, 1946-1991 (McFarland,1992).

Minnick has drawn extensively from public sources -- 277 entries in his bibliography -- to present alphabetical descriptions of 627 accused or convicted spies from around the world during the Cold War era. These descriptions range from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages in length, along with a listing of the major sources for each. In the course of these descriptions some 300 additional names are mentioned in passing. A 19-page chronology is also included.

The book was well received in the U.S. intelligence community, including positive book reviews in Cryptolog, Cryptologia, Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, Periscope (AFIO) and The Surveillant.

Minnick's research was profiled in the 1995 release of the Whole Spy Catalog: A Resource Encyclopedia for Researchers.

During the early 1990s, Minnick conducted a significant amount of research in Hong Kong and Taiwan into the 1955 Air India bombing and the possible CIA assassination attempt on Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, which appeared in a 1995 article "Target: Zhou Enlai" in the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review.

His research efforts were the focus of a feature story by Vivian Chiu, “Secrets of CIA War on China,” South China Morning Post (Hong Kong, 1 August 1992): Saturday Review Section (see below).