The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday described the passage of the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) as a minimal but correct step.
Although the act provides a stronger legal tool to fight Chinese infiltration, there is obvious room for improvement, the party said in a statement.
For example, the act does not bar people from taking control of Taiwanese media outlets or running political advertisements for Beijing under the instruction or sponsorship of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the NPP said.
Nor does it bar people from spreading false information, which could affect national security, or releasing joint statements with the CCP to undermine Taiwan’s freedom and democracy under the instruction or sponsorship of the CCP, it said.
While the NPP had proposed motions to add articles addressing those areas, they were blocked by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus, it added.
Other areas that the act does not address include running for office, initiating referendums, purchasing key national infrastructure or politically sensitive technologies under the instruction or sponsorship of the CCP, the NPP said.
To protect the nation’s democracy, related laws must be further enhanced, it said.
While the act marks an important step toward building a stronger defense mechanism for Taiwan’s democracy, it is not “fully satisfactory” in its content, NPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said in a livesteam.
The behaviors banned in the act are “minimal,” he said, adding that he finds it especially regrettable that the NPP’s proposal to add articles curbing Chinese infiltration of Taiwanese media was blocked.
Under current laws, Taiwanese media outlets running propaganda about unification for the CCP would be fined NT$100,000 to NT$500,000, he said.
To address the issue, he and Internet celebrity Holger Chen (陳之漢) on June 23 last year held a rally to call for tougher legislation to counter pro-China media outlets spreading fake news, he said.
Hopefully, all the important bills that failed to pass could be picked up in the next legislative session, he said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS