National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Yang Kuo-chiang(楊國強) yesterday said court judges should have handed down more severe sentences against people found guilty of leaking state secrets and that, in his opinion, they deserve capital punishment.
While presenting reports on other national security issues at the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee meeting, Yang was responding to questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆).
Tsai said there were a number of espionage cases in which Taiwanese were caught passing classified military information to China, and those receiving sentences included retired high-ranking military officers, while others were in active service.
Tsai pointed to the more recent espionage trial of Chinese spy Zhen Xiaojiang (鎮小江), who received only a four-year sentence, while the recruited Taiwanese ex-military officers did not have to serve prison terms after receiving suspended sentences.
“Those were judicial rulings by judges, who made their own independent judgements. If it was up to me, those who have betrayed the nation by leaking state secrets, because such crimes are so detestable, should be given the death sentence,” Yang said.
“The judges have handed all-too lenient sentences. When such espionage cases occur in China, those found guilty are punished very severely,” Yang added.
On other issues, Yang told the legislators that high-level security measures are to be implemented to protect the safety of the presidential candidates from the main political parties.
Yang said that each team of special security guards for the presidential candidates is to increase from 45 officers in the past to 55 this year.
“The personnel planning and preparatory works are being finalized right now. We expect to implement their operation starting on Nov. 13,” Yang said.
NSB officials said that four such special security guard teams have been assigned for the presidential campaign for the election on Jan. 16 next year.
Regarding the Double Ten National Day celebrations this year, Yang promised that security would be beefed up, because it is expected all three presidential candidates from the major parties will be in attendance.
He said “the strongest possible protective net” is to cover both the ground and the airspace of the high-security zones during the day’s event, which included the use of electronic jamming devices against the intrusion of drones or other types of unmanned aerial vehicles.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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