China stepped up its campaign to undermine President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan on Wednesday by announcing the arrest of 24 people from the island and 19 Chinese citizens on charges of espionage, one of the largest roundups of alleged spies ever acknowledged by the country’s security services. The announcement, made by the official New China News Agency and the government’s Taiwan affairs office, did not identify those detained or provide other details of the arrests. It came at a time of increased tensions in the region. Chen has launched a pro-independence reelection campaign and Beijing, in return, has threatened war. Taiwan’s leading spy agency, the Military Intelligence Bureau, denied any of its personnel had been arrested, and a presidential spokesman, James Huang, said in a telephone interview that Chen had received no information suggesting China had detained a large number of Taiwanese residents. Full Story