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.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique