China was behind Singapore’s decision to deny entry to Veterans Affairs Council (VAC) Director Lee Shying-jow (李翔宙), the council said yesterday.
Lee, who visited Thailand earlier this month, planned a stopover in Singapore to visit veterans of Taiwan’s armed forces residing in Singapore, but he was denied entry to the city-state despite a tacit agreement that the visit had been approved.
Lee’s status — he has served as deputy minister of national defense, an army commander, director-general of the National Security Bureau and as a senior presidential adviser — reportedly prompted concern.
Photo: CNA
VAC Deputy Director Lee Wen-chung (李文忠) yesterday attributed the incident to China’s interference during a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
“[Lee Shying-jow’s planned visit to Singapore was aborted] likely due to Chinese Communist Party interference,” Lee Wen-chung said. “Relations between Singapore and China are tense, so Singapore does not want to create more trouble.”
There has never been a visit by a VAC director to Singapore, Lee Wen-chung said, adding that most of the council’s foreign visits are to the US, where a majority of the overseas veterans’ clubs founded by the council are located.
Lee Shying-jow’s visit to Thailand was to pay his respects and present a commendation to the family of Sung Ching-yun (宋慶雲), a Taiwanese agricultural expert who helped farmers in northern Thailand phase out poppy cultivation and transition to other economically viable crops, Lee Wen-chung said.
In related news, Lee Wen-chung said eight retired military officials, including former army commander-in-chief Cheng Ting-chung (陳廷寵), are to visit China on Thursday next week to attend a “cultural event.”
While the nominal event organizer is a private calligraphy business, the “actual event organizer is usually the Taiwan Affairs Office and relevant agencies,” Lee Wen-chung said.
The council has contacted the retired officials and warned them against making any political comments or doing interviews, he said.
“There is no regulation that stops former military officials visiting China [once a three-year travel restriction expires]. The government could consider imposing a longer travel ban on retired military officials,” he said, adding that key personnel who have had access to highly sensitive information should be placed under a screening mechanism on a permanent basis.
National Security Bureau Third Division Director Lai Yun-cheng (賴蘊誠) said that several of the retired military officials have canceled the visit due to the negative public perception of the trip.
The attendance of retired lieutenant general Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) and former generals Wang Wen-hsieh (王文燮) and Hsia Ying-chou (夏瀛洲) at an event in Beijing chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last month provoked a public outcry and raised concern over national security, with legislators proposing imposing stricter travel restrictions and disciplinary measures on retired military officials.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS