Allegations that the National Police Agency (NPA) in January proposed downgrading the national counterterrorism training center has drawn criticism from Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers.
The national counterterrorism training center is housed in an incomplete compound in Taoyuan’s Sinwu District (新屋), with construction of the NT$550 million (US$17.04 million) project having dragged on for 13 years.
According to an anonymous source, on Jan. 13 — just three days before the presidential election — the NPA abruptly filed a request to the Executive Yuan asking for approval to downgrade the training center from a national-level establishment to an agency-level establishment.
By the time the request had been reviewed by the Executive Yuan, the election had taken place, and the Executive Yuan decided it would be prudent to suspend the controversial issue for president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to decide after it has taken power on May 20, the source said.
Executive Yuan spokesman Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) declined to comment on the NPA’s proposal.
Cabinet spokesperson-designate Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said that the incoming Cabinet did not fully understand the situation and would not comment on it until after its inauguration.
DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said the NPA had overstepped its remit by demanding that the training center be downgraded, which would affect other public agencies, including the military.
Citing media reports that the Indonesian government had expressed concern that terrorists might seek to infiltrate Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, Chen said that the NPA’s proposed downgrade of the center had “put national security in reverse gear.”
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration had “chronically neglected” the nation’s counterterrorism efforts, and that the Executive Yuan’s Homeland Security Office had been an “empty establishment” that was “criticized by lawmakers” and “underfunded.”
The NPA said that local environmental regulations had made it impossible to build the several training facilities it had proposed, including nuclear, biological and chemical warfare training facilities, and that the Ministry of National Defense had agreed in May last year to build those facilities separately for the military.
The downgrade would not affect the ability of any counterterrorism unit from outside the agency to use the training center, the NPA said.
However, the national training center was conceived to both improve the coordination of the nation’s various counterterrorism units and to enable military exercises with international partners, the source said, adding that these important plans had been thrown into disarray by the NPA’s unilateral actions.
The training center was supposed to have 12 subordinate facilities, each with the capability of designing and holding a wargame aimed at a specific type of terrorist attack, such as nuclear, biological or chemical weapons strikes, an explosive device attack, hostage-taking on planes, ships or cars, or inside a compound, the source said.
The NPA has “bitten off more than it can chew” by taking the responsibility of building all 12 facilities of the center on itself, the source said.
When the NPA realized that it was unable to build all the facilities itself, it at first reduced the number of facilities from 12 to nine, then from nine to seven, until only “anti-violence and anti-hijacking” facilities remained in the center, the source said.
Minister of the Interior Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁) dismissed concerns about the downgrade and insisted that the only difference would be lexical, adding that not all the government’s national-level establishments had the word “nation” in its name, citing Academia Sinica as an example.
Additional reporting by Lo Tien-ping
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS