Attendance of retired military officers at Chinese commemoration events is “inappropriate,” Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said yesterday, adding that rules governing military personnel visiting China say that state-run events should be avoided, while active-duty personnel must defend the Republic of China and its interests.
The comments came after video footage broadcast by China Central Television showed retired Taiwanese military personnel on Friday among a crowd at an event marking the 150th anniversary of Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) birth, at which Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) gave a speech.
The ministry has regulations governing serving or retired military personnel entering China.
There is a [maximum three-year] restriction on visits to China by retired military personnel proportional to how much classified information the individual had access to in their time in service, Chen said.
Even after the time limits have expired, the Veteran Affairs Council will issue reminders that retired military personnel, or family members of veterans should avoid attending official events held by the Chinese government, he said.
The legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee said the ministry should investigate possible violations of the rules and consider punitive action, such as canceling pensions and rescinding honors or medals.
Chen said that the regulations did not permit the ministry to launch an investigations into retired personnel if they are reported to have attended official events in China after the three-year restriction period is over.
However, punitive measures will be considered and every effort will be made to meet legal standards, Chen said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) said that he would propose an amendment to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) that would place clear stipulations on certain Taiwanese attending events organized by the Chinese government.
According to Article 33 of the act, “individuals, legal persons, groups and other organizations are forbidden to have a position of leadership in political or politically inclined organizations affiliated with Chinese Communist Party affairs, military or governmental.”
After the period of restriction is completed, retired military officers are considered ordinary people, according to the rules, but as multiple visits to China and attending Chinese official events can cause concern, the proposal requires retired military and government officials of certain rank to apply for permission to visit China to attend Beijing-run events, Wang said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the