Because of National Security Bureau (NSB) director Tsai Tsao-ming's (蔡朝明) failure to show up, lawmakers of the opposition camp yesterday boycotted a scheduled discussion of draft laws for the monitoring of the country's intelligence system at a joint meeting of the defense and organic laws committees.
The move, jointly taken by lawmakers with the KMT and PFP, was strongly condemned by DPP lawmakers, who said it was irrational and incomprehensible.
"It is incredible to see that the ruling DPP is pushing hard for the legislation of intelligence monitoring laws while the opposition parities do not buy it," said DPP lawmaker Lin Cho-shui (
PHOTO: CHU PEI-SHIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Another DPP lawmaker, Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信), a member of the defense committee, said the opposition parties shouldn't have boycotted yesterday's meeting of the defense and organic laws committees just because of NSB director Tsai's failure to attend.
Tsai, now on a trip to the US, left the country last week before he was invited to attend yesterday's meeting at the legislature.
Chen said he worried the opposition camp might continue to boycott the next meeting of the defense and organic laws committees tomorrow. The meeting has the same purpose of discussing draft laws for intelligence monitoring.
"This week is the last week of the legislature for discussions of draft laws at committees. If the opposition camp continues the boycott, the much-expected legislation for intelligence monitoring laws is sure to be delayed until the next session of the legislature," Chen said.
The two DPP lawmakers made the remarks yesterday at a press conference they called at the legislature after the joint meeting of the defense and organic laws committees failed to take place.
They said the DPP is eager to legislate intelligence laws as soon as possible and that the effort was launched at the request of the opposition camp after the high-profile leak of NSB classified documents to the press earlier.
"The opposition camp does not seem to appreciate our effort. They first complain about Tsai's failure to show up. They also find fault with the NSB for not presenting its own version of a draft law for intelligence monitoring," they said.
"The NSB is a governmental agency. Is it reasonable to ask it to make a law to subject itself to monitoring by lawmakers?" they said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods