Taiwan is preparing to donate US$500,000 in mine-weeping equipment to the coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group, Deputy Minister of National Defense Cheng De-mei (鄭德美) said yesterday at a legislative hearing that highlighted the challenges posed by the nation’s continued exclusion from international terrorist intelligence databases.
Cheng made the remarks in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) at a hearing of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee on anti-terrorism measures as Taipei prepares to host the Summer Universiade in August.
The mine-sweeping equipment has been prepared, Cheng said, adding that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in the process of coordinating the donation.
Several legislators expressed concern over whether the government is receiving adequate intelligence to prevent a possible terrorist attack during the Universiade.
“There is no way for us to access information on lost or missing passports and travel documents, except indirectly through other governments,” DPP Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said, adding that the nation’s exclusion from Interpol denied it access to key crime and terrorism databases.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志忠) said while the Interpol has rejected Taiwan’s requests to access the databases, the European Police Office (Europol) has given a more positive response and individual governments have shared information from their databases.
However, the nation continues to lack real-time access to Interpol databases, he said.
National Police Agency Deputy Director-General Chou Wen-ke (周文科) said that Tokyo has supplied Taipei with information from its Interpol databases.
In response to a question by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), National Security Bureau Director-General Peng Sheng-chu (彭勝竹) said that the US has provided anti-terrorism training to Taiwanese law enforcement units to prevent a possible attack during the Universiade and will send observers to monitor drills.
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
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