Aiding China an offense: Tsai

DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳) announced yesterday that he has submitted a proposal to amend the Criminal Code to refer to China as a foreign country and to define people who collaborate with China to wage war against Taiwan or threaten it militarily as committing offences against national security.

"While China still refuses to abandon its military threat against Taiwan, we are facing the threat of being swallowed by the giant neighbor. Some pro-China Tai-wanese have made political use of this situation and collaborated with the communists against Taiwan," Tsai said at a press conference.

Tsai said that on Wednesday he had submitted his proposal to amend Articles 103 and Article 104 of the Criminal Code, which define crimes against the external security of the state.

Article 103 says, "A person who communicates with a foreign state or its agent with intent that such state or another state begin war against the ROC shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life."

It also states that a person who "prepares or conspires" to commit such an offence "shall be punished with imprisonment for not less than three and not more than 10 years."

Article 104 reads, " A person who communicates with a foreign state or its agent with intent to subject territory of the ROC to such state or another state shall be punished with death or imprisonment," adding that anyone who "prepares or conspires" to commit such an offence "shall be punished with imprisonment for not less than three and not more than 10 years."

"My proposed amendment to Article 103 adds, `Those who collaborate with China or its agents with intent that such state or another state wage war against the ROC shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life,'" Tsai said.

For Article 104 it would add, "Those who communicate with China or its agents with intent to subject territory of the ROC to China shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life," he said.

Tsai's draft bill would also delete from both articles the offence of "preparing or conspiring" since, he said, "the law does not define `preparation' or `conspiracy,' evidence of which in fact is very

difficult to identify."

Tsai said that the amendment is now awaiting for the legislature's second and third reviews to become a law.

China has never been defined under ROC law as a foreign country because the former KMT government considered the mainland to be part of the ROC's territory.

But as national consciousness has emerged as a powerful and emotive political force among the Taiwanese over the past decade, whether China is a foreign country has become a central issue dividing the pro-independence and pro-China camps.