CRIME
Chen may face more suits
Prosecutors have found 1,565 documents relating to national security affairs among the 58 boxes seized from the offices of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), the Supreme Prosecutors Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) said yesterday. The SIP made the comments after it completed opening all 58 boxes at the Taipei Detention Center in Chen’s presence. Saying that any document leak would have undermined national security, SIP spokesman Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達) said the panel was preparing charges against Chen Shui-bian for allegedly removing the boxes from the Presidential Office when he left office in 2008. Investigators raided Chen Shui-bian’s current and former offices on Linyi Street and Guanqian Road on Sept. 15. The Presidential Office said late last month that Chen Shui-bian may have breached security protocols and endangered national security if the boxes contained classified information.
CRIME
Four fraud suspects nabbed
Taipei police yesterday arrested four suspected members of a fraud ring that was taking in at least NT$20 million (US$645,000) a month. “The fraud ring used the pretext of helping people with credit problems obtain bank loans,” said lieutenant Lee Wen-chang (李文章) of Taipei City Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Corps. Police raided the ring’s headquarters in Sangchong City, Taipei County, and arrested the four suspects — Lee Chien-ting (李建霆), 27, Chan Hsiu-ju (詹秀茹), 21, Hsieh Hsin-nan (謝炘男), 26 and Tsai Yi-chin (蔡益進), 26. About NT$230,000 in bank notes and a list of 200 potential fraud victims were found at the scene. “These victims did not realize their bank accounts were being used for money laundering until we told them,” Lee Wen-chang said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard