The new Justice Minister Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), who has been given the responsibility of getting rid of "black-gold" politics, has run into a war of words with Wang Kuang-ru (王光宇), head of the ministry's Investigation Bureau (MJIB). Even though Premier Tang Fei (唐飛) came out to ease the "disharmony between ministries and bureaus," the two were still unwilling to shake hands in front of legislators and the media. The standoff has cast a pall over the prospects of the new government's crackdown on crime.
The justice ministry is one of the Investigation Bureau's supervisors, but not its real boss. Much of the MJIB's work is supervised by the National Security Bureau (NSB), while the portion of work that is key to the ministry -- cracking down on corruption, drugs and economic crimes -- is done by makeshift groups. Even though the MJIB's budget is listed under the justice ministry, the NSB has an even larger secret budget for it. In terms of money and power, the NSB looks more like the bureau's boss than the ministry.
In the past, poking their noses in the MJIB's affairs had caused the downfall of justice ministers -- the bureau's administrative superiors. Remember Hsiao Teng-tzang
Chen is a stubborn, idiosyncratic politician. As long as he believes he is in the right, he moves ahead without worrying about hurting other's feelings. That is one reason he has such strong public support for his crackdown on crime.
But now Chen seems to have stepped into the frying pan. Shaking up the investigative mechanism, fussing over the difficulties of directing the MJIB, tightening up the management of detention centers, all mean Chen has kept the people in the various agencies under him biting their nails. Their reluctance to support the new minister's policies have made Chen very much the Lone Ranger in the ministry. He only has public opinion and support to fall back on.
Sensing the hostility of Taiwan's intelligence agencies to him, Chen Shui-bian
We hope the latter will not turn out to be true. Chen Shui-bian, like many other Taiwanese, suffered under the "White Terror" inflicted by intelligence agencies. When he was a legislator, Chen had many proposals about ways to reform Taiwan's intelligence system. Now that he is in power, he should formulate a policy for these units that is different from his predecessors.
The problem with the MJIB lies not in its status, but in its ill-defined responsibilities and powers. Separating intelligence and law-enforcement work -- putting political surveillance personnel under the National Security Bureau and turning the MJIB into a specialized anti-crime agency -- will be the beginning of a more rational system.
The MJIB has operated in a highly centralized chain of command. All investigators have to seek approval of their every step from headquarters. Accusations that prosecutors have had difficulties directing MJIB personnel or that the bureau has "killed" cases are no surprise.
Putting the MJIB's crime-fighting units under prosecutors will simplify the command system. This is not only compatible with the spirit of the rule of law, but is also a prerequisite for making the MJIB more efficient.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
After more than a year of review, the National Security Bureau on Monday said it has completed a sweeping declassification of political archives from the Martial Law period, transferring the full collection to the National Archives Administration under the National Development Council. The move marks another significant step in Taiwan’s long journey toward transitional justice. The newly opened files span the architecture of authoritarian control: internal security and loyalty investigations, intelligence and counterintelligence operations, exit and entry controls, overseas surveillance of Taiwan independence activists, and case materials related to sedition and rebellion charges. For academics of Taiwan’s White Terror era —
After 37 US lawmakers wrote to express concern over legislators’ stalling of critical budgets, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) pledged to make the Executive Yuan’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget a top priority for legislative review. On Tuesday, it was finally listed on the legislator’s plenary agenda for Friday next week. The special defense budget was proposed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration in November last year to enhance the nation’s defense capabilities against external threats from China. However, the legislature, dominated by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), repeatedly blocked its review. The
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
RSS