Lax screening by the National Immigration Agency (NIA) is posing a severe threat to national security, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
Chen said records show that nearly 4,000 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) United Front Work Department officials have visited Taiwan since 2008, ostensibly for economic or academic exchanges, and their numbers continue to rise.
More than 3,801 officials from the department across all levels of the CCP government have visited Taiwan since 2009, Chen said.
Chen said 68 officials visited in 2008, 446 in 2009, 754 in 2010, 740 in 2011, 855 in 2012, while last year and this year up till last month, 938 visited the nation.
The department’s former deputy chief, Xu Zongcheng (續總成), visited in November 2009 and Deputy Director-General Chen Lin (陳琳) visited in January last year, the lawmaker said.
The immigration agency has failed to uphold the Act Governing Approval for Mainland Area Professionals to Engage in Professional Activities in Taiwan (大陸地區專業人士來台從事專業活動許可辦法), which is supposed to be the basis on which the agency considers Chinese applications, Chen Chi-mai said.
“The department is treating Taiwan like its own backyard with such ease of access,” he added.
The merging of the former act with the Act on Permission for Entrance of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法) last year relaxed regulations, Chen Chi-mai said, adding that as long as Chinese applicants state their reason for visiting as a “short period of professional exchange” then the entry application is approved.
More than 1,020 CCP Unified Front Work Department officials applied to visit Taiwan last year and this year to last month, yet only 24 were denied, which represents a 97 percent approval rate, Chen Chi-mai said, adding that all 14 officials who applied for a “short period of professional exchange” were approved.
The entire system for reviewing applications has become dysfunctional, Chen Chi-mai said.
The “united front” principle of “allying with your lesser enemies to fight your primary enemy” eroded the basis of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule in China and eventually saw the KMT defeated in 1949, Chen Chi-mai said, adding that the KMT’s fear of the tactic had caused the 40-year-long White Terror period in Taiwan.
“It is sad to see the KMT government has not learned its lesson and is still allowing the CCP United Front officials open access to Taiwan to brainwash the Taiwanese,” Chen Chi-mai said.
“President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration must implement a major review and bar any member of the CCP’s United Front Work Department from entering Taiwan,” Chen Chi-mai said.
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking