The National Security Bureau (NSB) has denied a controversial visit to China by a recently retired official has anything to do with political in-fighting.
However, a bureau source told the Taipei Times yesterday that the trip may have been made to put the heat on the head of the bureau.
"At the beginning it was about money and a personal feud, but now it has turned into a power struggle against [NSB Director-General] Ting Yu-chou (
The incident was supposed to be publicized from the very beginning and now it is being twisted by politicians of different factions for their own ends, the official said.
"The whole thing can be traced back to an incident which happened before Major General Pan Hsi-hsien (
Pan was detained last Thursday by Chinese security agents in Guangdong Province and has yet to be released. Pan left for China on June 4, only three days after his retirement, in violation of security regulations.
Before Pan's retirement, he and Ting were apparently at odds with one another because of an incident that occurred a couple of months before. Pan was pulled over by police in Taipei one evening on suspicion of drunk driving. He was said to have been drinking heavily with friends at a night spot before being stopped.
Trying to not to disclose his identity, Pan did not tell police that he was an official with the NSB.
The incident, however, was discovered by Ting, who is known for demanding strict discipline from his staff.
While it is still unclear whether the two events were directly connected, Pan chose to file for early retirement on June 1.
Pan was meant to retire in six months time, at the beginning of next year.
"Forced to retire early, Pan lost six months salary and his entitlement to a better retirement package," the official said.
"Ting was apparently the only one at the NSB who did not know Pan planned to go to China after his retirement. Many of those who knew of the matter covered it up for Pan either out of sympathy for him or out of concern for his personal safety," he added.
"We don't think Pan is in danger in the hands of Chinese security agents. If the Chinese authorities want to do something to Pan, they would have done it the moment he entered China. Pan was a high-ranking official at the NSB and Chinese intelligence agents did not need to know who and where Pan was by reading news reports from Taiwan," the source said.
"We think Pan will be released by the Chinese authorities. But does he dare to come back? He will surely be interrogated [by his former colleagues] after he returns to Taiwan. He is 58 now. It will just be too painful for a man of his age," the source said.
Pan's controversial visit to China has also invited attempts by politicians of different factions to exploit the incident for political gain. Their ultimate aim is to remove Ting from his post, the source said.
"We don't think Ting will step down because of this incident. Ting can survive the crisis by duly disciplining those staff members who were directly responsible for letting the breach of security happen."
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
RSS