Former ministry of national defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) yesterday called for greater caution against Beijing’s infiltration, saying that high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials had tried to establish contact with him months after he left office in May 2008.
“China’s infiltration programs target not only the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and the media, but also people in the pan-blue camp and even those in the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] and the pan-green camp,” Tsai told a news conference in Taipei.
A Taiwanese entrepreneur doing business in China had relayed a message to him from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), he said.
Photo: CNA
“The TAO wanted to invite me to attend an international conference in China and they said I would be received by the leader of the CCP,” he said.
“I thought that was very strange because I had stepped down less than eight months ago. So I firmly refused,” Tsai said.
While self-confessed Chinese spy William Wang Liqiang’s (王立強) stories about China’s intelligence operations in Taiwan have brought more attention to the subject, the discussions have only touched the tip of the iceberg, he said.
The National Security Council in September said that China had been using all possible means to influence the Jan. 11 elections and proposed five countermeasures, so “I hope President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national security team would fully implement those measures,” Tsai added.
The DPP caucus’ version of an anti-infiltration bill, which stipulates a prison term of up to seven years or a fine of NT$5 million (US$163,866) for those who act on behalf of “foreign forces” to disrupt social order, and bans political donations and other political activities under the instructions of such forces, advanced to a second reading on Friday.
The KMT had previously obstructed the bill, but is now proposing an alternative, which would prevent the “annexation of the Republic of China.”
The KMT boycotted the legislative meeting on Monday last week to “prevent the DPP from posting the voting results online and portraying the KMT as siding with Beijing on Chinese interference,” KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said on Friday.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Association of University Professors president Lai Cheng-chang (賴振昌) said “the biggest national security problem” is that the government has to deal with groups of Taiwanese who support the CCP from within the nation.
For example, when Wang’s allegations were first reported, many in the pan-blue camp took the same stance on his claims as the CCP’s, Lai said.
The Reverend Omi Wilang, a Presbyterian minister, said the CCP has been trying to win the hearts of Taiwanese religious groups even as it cracks down on religious freedom in China.
“We strongly condemn the way in which the CCP has been tearing down churches and temples in China while inviting Taiwanese religious groups to China and offering them special treatments,” he said. “The two-faced approach is also part of its tactic to promote unification.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS