Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), former secretary-general of the Presidential Office, has been in Europe this week to attend a meeting, the Presidential Office confirmed yesterday, saying that Tseng was granted permission by the previous government to make the overseas trip.
The current administration had not been aware that Tseng was traveling overseas, but, after some investigation, was able to confirm that he has been in Europe since June 10 for a World League for Freedom and Democracy meeting, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said.
Tseng was on May 9 given authorization by then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to make the overseas trip from June 10 to yesterday, Huang said, adding that the current Democratic Progressive Party government did not take office until May 20.
There are no regulations against such an act with regard to high-ranking government officials whose term in office is about to end, Huang said, in response to reporters’ questions.
However, the Presidential Office thinks that former government officials who had high security clearance should inform relevant authorities of any overseas travel plans, Huang said.
Under the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), former presidents, premiers, ministers and certain other officials with high levels of security clearance are required to gain government approval for overseas travel for up to three years after leaving office.
The issue recently came to the forefront on Sunday last week when Ma was denied permission to travel to Hong Kong to speak at an event hosted by the Society of Publishers in Asia.
Ma’s application, the first of its kind since the act was passed in 2003, was rejected on grounds of national security and personal safety risks.
A special task force appointed by the Presidential Office to review the application said that it took into consideration the difficulty involved in controlling the risks of a former president visiting Hong Kong, which is “a highly sensitive area in terms of Taiwan’s national security.”
Ma, who eventually delivered his speech to the event via teleconferencing, said the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was adopting an approach of “guilty until proven otherwise.”
“Unless you have solid evidence that I have leaked state secrets, you should not have made a decision that has turned back the progress of our hard-earned democracy,” he said on Thursday.
According to a report yesterday in the China Times Weekly, it was while Ma’s application was being reviewed that the task force discovered Tseng was overseas.
Attempts by authorities to reach Tseng by telephone were unsuccessful, the weekly said, speculating that he must have applied for his travel permit before May 20, since it would have required at least 20 days for processing.
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