The Taiwan Strait is full of contradictions. The governments on the two sides are hostile, but they still engage in a variety of exchanges. Taiwan's policy toward China fluctuates between confrontation and openness. The "active opening, effective management" policy is a compromise born out of such conflict. The government's decision to open the door for local semiconductor manufacturers to set up eight-inch wafer foundries in China represents the forces of openness, but restrictions on high-tech expertise are inevitable if a balance is to be maintained across the Strait.
The National Science Council, the Mainland Affairs Council and other agencies are drafting a "national technology protection law" as well as regulations that would require high-tech personnel in certain industries to seek government permission to enter China. If passed, these regulations will rule high-tech exchanges with China. Such measures are needed if Taiwan is to maintain its national security and its industrial development.
However, the restrictions on the high-tech industry should follow the principle of "minimum control, minimum scope." To reduce the impact on an individual's rights, the new regulations should clearly define which levels of technicians in what areas of which industries or products will be restricted.
The proposed restrictions should focus on state-subsidized technology as well as private enterprises. State-subsidized technology includes government-funded research institutions and projects, as well as organizations and private companies that help the government in defense and other important areas. Since these sectors are funded by the government, the research results and technologies belong to all the people of Taiwan. In this regard, the government has the right to restrict the flow of people, technologies and products into China, in order to prevent Taiwan's industrial competitiveness from being undermined or to block any threat to national security.
However, the government must ensure the proposed regulations are given some teeth. They must carry severe criminal penalties for violators. The government needs to act now to plug leaks and migration that threaten the nation.
Psychological defenses against China are slack in government agencies, as evident with the recent leak of National Security Bureau secrets. One high-level government official has expressed worries to this newspaper about technology leaks, including defense technology from the military's Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (
While loath to restrict free enterprise, the government must still act to ensure that China does not benefit from industrial espionage. The furor over the alleged theft of commercial secrets by a former manager at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (
The people of Taiwan have benefited greatly from the economic advances made possible by the development of a free society. However, some people appear to have forgotten that Taiwan is still living under military threat. They are opposed to any restrictions on commerce and trade. Restrictions limiting the movement of high-tech personnel, technologies and products could certainly limit some individual and business freedoms, but they are a necessary evil at a time when Taiwan still faces a hostile enemy just a short hop across the Strait.
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) has formally announced his intention to stand for permanent party chairman. He has decided that he is the right person to steer the fledgling third force in Taiwan’s politics through the challenges it would certainly face in the post-Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) era, rather than serve in a caretaker role while the party finds a more suitable candidate. Huang is sure to secure the position. He is almost certainly not the right man for the job. Ko not only founded the party, he forged it into a one-man political force, with himself
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