What is the mission of the National Security Bureau?
According to Article 2 of the Organic Act of the NSB, the primary mission of this Bureau is to “take general responsibility for national security intelligence work, the planning and enforcement of special tasks, and the overall planning of code control and research.”
Is the NSB executing any monitoring tasks?
Under the Act Governing the Protection and Monitoring of Communications, the execution of monitoring tasks are strictly regulated. Any violation of the said law will be subject to criminal liability and prosecution. Therefore, the NSB will not and does not have to engage in any illegal monitoring.
What are the procedures and practices for the NSB to issue a warrant for the monitoring of communications?
1. Under the authorization of the Act Governing the Protection and Monitoring of Communications and the Enforcement Rules thereof, the Director General of this Bureau may issue such a warrant if and when he deems it necessary to gather information regarding foreign powers or offshore hostile forces for the purpose of preventing danger to the national security. If a subject under such monitoring has a registered residence within the territory of the ROC, prior approval must be sought from a prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors Office before issuing the warrant, and, upon conclusion of the monitoring, a notice must be given to the prosecutor pursuant to the law.
2. In order to safeguard the people's freedom of privacy of communication, the NSB follows the Operating Procedure for Intelligence Communications and Monitoring in strictly executing the review, issuance and control of the warrants for the monitoring of communications, and is under the Legislative Yuan's supervision. In addition, relevant cases are presented to the said Yuan's Subcommittee on the Review of the Execution of Communications Monitoring for its review.
3. In order to put into effect the idea of administering according to law, the NSB sends its personnel, along with prosecutors of the Supreme Prosecutors Office, to the monitoring places to make sure that the monitoring of communication is properly executed.
What is the role of the NSB in terms of counter-terrorism?
Under the nation's counter-terrorism mechanism, the NSB is responsible for the gathering of precautionary information regarding counter-terrorism whereas the overall planning of the execution of relevant tasks is entrusted to the Executive Yuan's Counter-Terrorism Task Force.
What are the primary purposes of the National Intelligence Work Act as promulgated and implemented?
The National Intelligence Work Act is intended to regulate, supervise and unify national intelligence work, to preserve national security and interests, and to protect the people's rights and interests.

What is the superior organ of the NSB? Is it subject to the supervision of any organ of the government?

According to Article 2 of the Amendments to the Constitution, the NSB is under the command of the National Security Council. Other than the National Security Council, the Bureau is also subject to the supervision of the Legislative Yuan pursuant to law.
Does the NSB furnish any information to the executive agencies for their reference and use?
The various governmental departments and agencies may bring up their respective national security intelligence needs to the NSB through the Joint National Intelligence Coordination Meeting and its subsidiary meetings. This Bureau will gather intelligence information based on the intelligence needs and, upon certain integration, evaluation and analysis, will furnish it to the governmental departments and agencies concerned for their reference in policy-making.
Does the overseas operation of the NSB overlap the functions of the representative offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oversea Compatriot Affairs Commission, etc.?
The overseas operation of this Bureau is mainly focused on the exchange of information with the intelligence organs of the respective states to which ROC diplomatic representatives are accredited, thereby gathering and analyzing the intelligence from various states that may concern our national security. On the other hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission are engaged in promoting friendly relations with foreign countries and protecting the rights and interests of overseas compatriots, respectively. Therefore, given the different nature of their tasks, not only is there no overlapped work, but they also support and complement one another's tasks.
Is the NSB responsible for domestic public safety and security?
This Bureau is responsible for integrating national security intelligence work whereas the public safety and security is entrusted by law to agencies like the Coast Guard Administration, Investigation Bureau, National Police Agency, etc. In the event that this Bureau acquires any information relating to public safety or crimes, it will furnish it to the public safety and security authorities concerned for their reference through the national security intelligence system.
Why is the NSB responsible for the integration of intelligence?
In order to effectively identify and grasp any potential factor and precautionary information that may jeopardize national security so as to take preemptive or preventive measures, various governments around the world have established all sorts of intelligence organs to perform a mixture of information-gathering tasks. The essence of intelligence lies in accuracy and reliability. A single unit should be primarily responsible for the entire process which includes such stages as delineating the scope of information gathering, guiding various information-gathering organs in the collection of information, classifying, assessing, analyzing, synthesizing, judging (including confirming) the information so gathered, and finally handing the information over to the decision-makers for reference and use, so as to produce information that not only satisfies the needs of policy making, but also are accurate and reliable.