Top government officials are currently weighing the possibility of replacing National Security Bureau (NSB) Director General Ting Yu-chou (
While the government has not yet made a final decision on the matter, sources said that leaders are more inclined to keep Ting at his position to assist in restructuring the bureau and to help improve the country's national security system.
An official with the NSB, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said replacing Ting may not be a cure-all and that it would not be fair for Ting to take the full blame for both the unapproved departure to China by Pan Hsi-hsien (
Pan, who retired June 1 at the rank of major general and departed for China three days later, was taken into custody by Chinese security agents in Guangdong Province at the end of last month. It is believed that he is still being held by the Chinese authorities.
Pan's plan to go to China and work there was known by a number of his colleagues, who held a farewell party for him before he left the service, internal investigations by the NSB indicated.
Because subordinates concealed Pan's China trip plan from him, General Ting was most likely the only one at the bureau unaware of the trip, and probably did not know of it until it was first exposed by legislators and later extensively reported in the press.
As chief of the country's top intelligence agency, Ting is supposed to know everything relating to the country's national security, but he apparently failed the public's expectations in this regard.
But the matter is complicated by several factors, such as a personal feud between Ting and Pan, factionalism in the bureau and personal problems with Pan.
According to a recently-released report on the incident by the Control Yuan, Pan was forced to take early retirement because of a drunk driving incident at the beginning of this year.
To Pan and other servicemen, early retirement means lost salary and a scaling down of retirement pension packages.
Pan's monthly salary before retirement was about NT$100,000, but his monthly income could be as high as NT$200,000 if allowances and subsidies were taken into account, intelligence sources said.
Pan's early retirement could have cost him as much as NT$1 million, compared to what he would have received had he retired as scheduled at the end of the year. His forced departure had certainly much to do with Ting, who is known for demanding his staff remain "clean," sources said.
Another dimension to the Pan incident is factionalism in the bureau. Pan was widely known to have been brought into the bureau by ex-NSB chief Sung Hsin-lien (
Pan was probably one of the few remaining members of the Sung faction in the bureau when Ting took over the NSB directorship last year from Yin Chung-wen (
Being a member of a smaller faction in the bureau, Pan stayed at the major general rank for the rest of his service while some of his classmates, like Combined Services Force Commander-in-chief Hsieh Chien-tung (
Sources said, however, that Pan's service record was another major element which affected his career.
While a colonel, Pan was already involved in Taiwan's intelligence operations in China, responsible for training agents to operate across the Taiwan Strait, they said.
However, in one incident which became a stain on Pan's record, three agents trained by Pan were recalled just before they were to enter China through a country in the Indo-China region, they said.
The reason for calling off the infiltration mission at the last moment was highly classified, they said, but the incident had strongly affected Pan's further advancement.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
LETTER, FLAG FLAP: A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a letter meant for Taiwanese winners, while China’s team took offense at a Taiwanese flag President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday condemned an alleged attempt by two Chinese to snatch a letter of congratulations handed to Taiwan’s taekwondo team after they won silver at the Summer World University Games in Germany on Wednesday. A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a congratulatory letter to athletes Hung Jiun-yi (洪俊義), Jung Jiun-jie (鍾俊傑) and Huang Cho-cheng (黃卓乘) from the Ministry of Education, and then argued with reporters. “Why are you taking our things?” reporters asked the pair. “Does that say ‘Chinese Taipei’?” the two Chinese reportedly asked. Following the incident, Sports Administration Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) wrote on Threads about