The soon-to-be-opened "small three links" may bring political, economic and social changes to Kinmen. It may also compel the Kinmen County government to make adjustments to adapt to the new changes. The new policy is, predictably, going to dramatically increase cross-strait interaction in a very short time. This is likely to result in a sharp rise in crime for both sides with criminal cases involving Chinese and Taiwanese citizens visiting Kinmen, or vice versa, increasing in the near term.
To deal with this change in the security environment, Kinmen police have recently staged a series of anti-robbery drills, but this covers only one type of crime. Also, criminals may flee to China or Taiwan immediately after the crime (more likely to China due to the geographical proximity). It is not easy to predict the patterns of criminal behavior and if we do not make early preparations to prevent this trend, Kinmen and the small three links' routes could quickly become a hotbed for criminals.
This is not only the responsibility of Kinmen police, but also an issue that should be addressed by the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of National Defense, the Coast Guard Administration and the central government -- as well as the governments of Xiamen City and Fujian Province and the Chinese central government. To put it more concretely, Kinmen police alone may not be able to handle all the criminal incidents that occur. They will have to rely on a joint security system created in cooperation with all authorities concerned. Apart from working with agencies in Taiwan, Kinmen police will have to cooperate with those on the Chinese side. In other words, to prevent cross-strait crime, we need to improve cooperative mechanisms between Taiwan's different government agencies as well as between the two sides of The Strait. It will be difficult to mend the security loopholes after the small three links begin.
While communication between Taiwan's domestic law enforcement units may seem strong because they belong to the same government agencies, we should not underestimate the inadequacy of the communication channels between them. For example, related criminal cases may occur simultaneously on land and at sea. In such a situation, cooperation from the Coast Guard Administration, including the coastal police and marine police headquarters, will be necessary. Channels for reporting information on a crime will be especially important. However, both the coastal and marine police lost their interactive channels with police agencies after they were put under the management of the Coast Guard Administration. Therefore, building a new cooperative mechanism between the Coast Guard Administration and the police will be an important task in strengthening Kinmen's public security system.
When it comes to cross-strait cooperative mechanisms, the best approach is to let the law enforcement agencies on both sides talk directly to each other. If they cannot adopt a formal cooperative mechanism for political reasons, the two sides should set up non-official organizations, not unlike the Straits Exchange Foundation (海基會) and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (海協會), and let them handle public security across The Strait. Another feasible option is to use informal mechanisms, such as holding academic exchanges focusing on public security across The Strait, or build Internet contact channels, like information exchange programs. These are strategies that can be implemented immediately. All told, Taiwan can take the initiative in building mechanisms for public security cooperation across The Strait -- both formal and informal. After all, this is something that will benefit both sides of the strait.
Yang Yung-nane is a professor in the department of administrative management at the Central Police University.
Translated by Francis Huang
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