Senior civil servants and officials whose work relates to national security are to be barred from pursuing advanced studies in China as of today, Minister of the Interior Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁) announced yesterday.
The revised Regulations Governing Public Servants and Special Status Personnel from the Taiwan Area Entering the Mainland Area (臺灣地區公務員及特定身分人員進入大陸地區許可辦法), published on Tuesday, bar such officials from pursuing advanced studies, studying for credit, engaging in special projects or other types of advanced studies in China, Chen said.
“The ministry has discussed the matter for some time and published the revised regulations in view of national security,” he said.
Some senior officials have studied in China without obtaining prior approval and are known to have traveled there during vacations, he said.
“Previously, we did not have punishments for such acts, but punishments will now be handed out now that the regulations have been revised,” he said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said the ban applies to senior civil servants and officials whose work is related to matters of national security; ministers without portfolio; heads of the nation’s special municipalities; heads of cities and counties; personnel from the National Security Bureau and the Ministry of National Defense; members of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau who do not have civil servant status; as well as individuals or private groups commissioned to work in areas concerning national secrets.
Junior civil servants will not be affected, the agency said.
Many civil servants have traveled to China for advanced studies over the years.
After the “small three links” were established between Kinmen, Matsu and China in 2001, several mid-ranking and senior officials in the Kinmen County Government pursued masters degrees or doctorates in China.
National Security Bureau data shows that between 2004 and November last year, 97 civil servants went to China, mainly to pursue doctorates. Most of them studied at Xiamen University in Fujian Province, the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing and Jinan University in Guangzhou.
The Directorate-General of Personnel Administration said it has no precise data concerning the number of civil servants going to China for advanced studies, but it said there are about 8,000 senior civil servants and about 1 percent will be affected by the new rules.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) late last year said that civil servants studying in China could give create concerns about national security.
At the time, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that while the law did not ban senior civil servants from studying in China, the government did not “support or encourage” such a practice.
The new regulations were drawn up to address the issue.
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS