Academics have urged President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) government to follow other countries’ examples, preventing Chinese infiltration and establishing a self-defense mechanism for the nation’s democracy as soon as possible.
Chinese infiltration in the international community has affected the national interest of different countries, Cross-Strait Policy Association secretary-general Wang Chih-sheng (王智盛) said.
However, for Taiwan, Chinese infiltration touches on national survival, Wang said, adding that the government should review what other countries have done as soon as possible, assess national security laws and ensure Taiwan’s safety.
According to Wang, Jamestown Foundation fellow Peter Mattis has said that former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) term was a “dark decade,” during which Chinese spies were most active in Taiwan.
Mattis, a former US government analyst, said that in the past, as Taiwan opened up, order was not enforced, allowing deep Chinese infiltration, Wang continued.
Such activities are no longer limited to photography and fishing for military intelligence like in the past, Wang said, adding that infiltrators are developing organizations, absorbing members and sowing seeds in Taiwan through pro-China political parties or groups.
Australia and other countries have already noticed Chinese infiltration and interference, and have drawn up laws to prevent it, Wang said.
However, disagreement about identity, with the pan-blue camp not viewing China as an enemy, has made drafting legislation difficult in Taiwan, Wang added.
China uses Confucius Institutes around the world as spy agencies that infiltrate academic and cultural institutions to limit academic freedom, Tamkang University Center of Advanced Technology executive director Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said, adding that many countries are already on alert.
China has replicated this mode in Taiwan, infiltrating Taiwanese academia and targeting graduate students to develop groups, Su said, adding that these actions are still happening in the shadows, but could spark the next national security crisis.
To recruit Chinese students, schools have cooperated with the country and lost their independence, he said, adding that China has also used academics in science and technology to execute its plans for technological research.
On the surface, these plans are commercial or technological in nature, but they actually have military aims, Su said.
In the fields of law and politics, by hosting forums, cross-strait academic exchanges and other platforms, China gives people a stage to influence Taiwanese public opinion and defend China, Su said.
Because of academic freedom, it might be legally difficult to intervene, but the government should strengthen education and psychological defense, Su said, adding that the nation should develop a defense mechanism for its democracy similar to that of Germany.
This means amending the Political Party Act (政黨法) or the Civil Associations Act (人民團體法) to forbid the use of democratic means to reject the democratic system and forbidding organizations that reject the democratic system, among others, Su said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching