The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said that an anti-infiltration bill proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would undermine the nation’s freedom and democracy.
The DPP has been using alleged Chinese spy William Wang Liqiang’s (王立強) account of Chinese espionage activities to promote the bill, despite there being many questions about his story, KMT Chairman Wu Den-yi (吳敦義) said during the KMT’s Central Standing Committee meeting.
If passed, the anti-infiltration bill would “bring back Dong Chang (東廠),” a Ming Dynasty secret police agency, and undermine democracy and freedom, Wu said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Australian media on Saturday last week reported that Wang, a self-confessed former Chinese spy, has given Australia’s counterespionage agency inside intelligence on how Beijing conducts operations abroad.
Quoting Wang, reports said that he had helped funnel about 20 million yuan (US$2.85 million at the current exchange rate) of campaign donations to Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) for his mayoral campaign last year.
Han is the KMT’s presidential candidate.
Wang also said that China had paid various Taiwanese news networks to broadcast news designed to negatively affect the DPP ahead of the Jan. 11 elections.
The KMT caucus would strongly support the bill if it could improve national security and social stability, but so far those issues had not been handled properly, KMT caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) said.
Despite the bill’s far-reaching implications, the DPP aims to push it through a second reading tomorrow without going through a proper committee review, he said, adding that the Executive Yuan did not even offer an alternative version.
Earlier yesterday, the KMT held a news conference at its headquarters when it accused the DPP of trying to railroad the bill.
The bill contains many articles that are “vague” and could easily be used to set up the party’s political enemies, legislator-at-large candidate Charles Chen (陳以信) said.
For example, one article would ban people from making political donations under the instruction or using funds offered by a foreign state or organization that is an enemy of, or in a military standoff with, Taiwan, he said.
Based on that definition, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam or even the US could be considered a source of infiltration if they become involved in a “military standoff” with Taiwan over disputed waters, he said.
The bill would give the government excessive power and would encroach on human rights, especially those of Taiwanese working and studying in China, he said.
The nation has already improved its mechanisms against infiltration after the Legislative Yuan in May passed amendments to national security laws, legislator-at-large candidate Stacey Lee (李貴敏) said at the news conference.
While the DPP said that an anti-infiltration act is needed to complement the newly amended national security laws, it is unclear why that would be necessary, she said.
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times,
RSS