Liu Kuan-chun (劉冠軍), the runaway former National Security Bureau (NSB) official, is hiding in North America, not in China, DPP lawmaker Chang Ching-fang (張清芳) said at a press conference yesterday.
Chang said that he has Liu's address and has given the information to the NSB as well as the Bureau of Investigation so they can arrest him in the near future. "Agents are preparing to arrest him," he said.
Chang also said he did not understand why Liu is rumored to be in China.
"This rumor has damaged our intelligence system and has endangered our secret service agents who are currently working in Ch-ina," said Chang. "The main reason for today's press conference is to dispel this rumor and tell our secret service agents to relax because they were not exposed at all. However, we need to catch Liu and bring him back to Taiwan as soon as possible."
In addition, Li Wei-yi (
Asked where Liu is staying, Chang said that he has to keep Liu's location secret to prevent Liu from changing his residence.
However, a Chinese-language newspaper quoted anonymous sources on March 28 as saying that Liu was hiding in Canada and was being watched by NSB agents. Liu has allegedly chosen to hide in Canada because he has a brother living there.
"Our information is pretty reliable," Chang added. "He was seen by some overseas Taiwanese who are living there. I mean, not many people saw him, but his location was spotted, identified, and confirmed by reliable sources. I think it shouldn't be a problem for our investigators to catch him in the near future."
Liu, the former NSB chief cashier, is wanted for his alleged embezzlement of over NT$192 million from Taiwan's secret funds for national security. Chang said that Liu fled overseas and left for Xiamen (廈門), China, on Sept. 3, 2000, and then arrived in Shanghai on the same day. He later fled to Bangkok in January last year, and showed up in a west coast city in North America a few days after he appeared in Bangkok. Reliable sources say that Liu is still in Canada.
"We have no idea how he fled from Taiwan to North America," Chang said. "At this moment, we believe that he used a fake Taiwan passport, but we do not know how he got it. However, since his visa has expired, he can no longer legally enter a third country. That will help investigators arrest him, too."
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
RSS