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Amendments would lead to revealing of secret information

The government will be required to immediately declassify any information legally made public by a foreign government if the legislature passes revisions to legislation on classified information.

The legislature's Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday approved draft amendments to the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法).

The revisions would ban the government from listing information legally made public by the government or a foreign government as secret.

The government would also be required to declassify information legally made public by a foreign government.

The committee resolved no cross-party negotiations needed to be conducted before the change proceeds to the plenary legislative session for deliberation.

KMT Legislator Lee Chi-chu (李紀珠), who initiated the amendments, said that her proposal was not targeted at President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Chen has claimed that six secret diplomatic missions financed by his controversial "state affairs fund" were secret because they were placed under the protection of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act. He, however, has failed to produce information supporting his claim.

Lee said that the motive of her proposal was simple: she did not want Taiwanese people to become second-class citizens and be kept in the dark by their own government under the pretense of national security, while China and other countries knew about the country's secrets.

"Taxpayers deserve to know where their money goes and how it is spent," she said. "It does not have anything to do with ideology or partisan interest. It is a matter of facing your own people with the utmost honesty," she said.

Kuan Kao-yueh (管高岳), director of Ministry of Justice's Department of Government Employee Ethics, expressed support for the revisions, saying that it would make sense to declassify information legally made public by a foreign government.

He, however, declined to comment on the impact of the amendments on Chen's case if it becomes law.
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