Taiwan's ruling party is warning that a fugitive aide's escape exposes a serious gap in national security, with analysts suggesting China may have built a hidden smuggling network inside Taiwan.

• A former aide to an independent lawmaker, accused of taking Chinese money to build political networks in Taiwan, jumped bail and fled, and has still not been caught.
• A US think tank report says Taiwan's gangs may be working closely with secret Chinese agents, and suspects a mature underground network already exists to move people in and out of Taiwan.
• Lawmakers warn that same network could run in reverse, smuggling Chinese agents and weapons into Taiwan.
• Taiwan's prosecutors have formally charged the lawmaker he worked for with corruption and national security violations, seeking a 14-year prison sentence, but the case against her is hard to fully resolve while her aide remains at large.
• The ruling party says this isn't about scoring political points, but a wake-up call for security agencies to tighten border and intelligence controls before real damage is done.

Outlook: Expect Taiwan's security agencies to review and tighten anti-infiltration measures, while the legal case against the lawmaker stays unresolved until her aide is caught.