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.
CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT: A new committee would investigate a backlog of US weapons sales to Taiwan, said its chairman, US Representative Mike Gallagher The US should formally recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, and end its outdated and counterproductive “one China” policy, US Representative Tom Tiffany and 18 other US lawmakers wrote in a petition. “It is time to change the status quo and recognize the reality denied by the US government for decades: Taiwan is an independent nation,” Tiffany told the Epoch Times. “As our long-standing and valued partner, correctly acknowledging their independence from communist China is long overdue.” The resolution also asks the administration of US President Joe Biden to support Taiwan’s membership in international organizations and to negotiate a bilateral free-trade
The Pentagon is preparing for US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Taiwan later this year, Punchbowl News reported on Monday, citing an official directly involved in the talks. US administration officials anticipate McCarthy would visit Taiwan some time in the spring, the report said. McCarthy had previously pledged to visit Taiwan if he became House speaker. He was elected speaker earlier this month. He had also said that he would have liked to join then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s delegation when she visited Taiwan in August last year. Pelosi’s 19-hour visit to Taipei marked the first time in 25 years
Taiwan’s Chou Chieh-yu (周婕妤) was crowned the Kamui WPA Women’s World 9-Ball Champion after shutting out British pool titan Allison Fisher 9-0 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the organizers said on Sunday. Following the championship win at Harrah’s Resort and Casino Atlantic City, Chou pocketed US$30,000 and became the first female competitor to hold both the 9-ball and 10-ball world titles since Briton Kelly Fisher in 2012. Chou, 36, won the Predator World Women’s 10-Ball Championship in Austria in September last year after clinching a silver medal at last year’s World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, in July. “I’m very excited and it’s like
JOINT OPERATIONS: Participating in the IMET program, which offers professional training and education to military personnel, would boost Taiwan’s defense capabilities The US government is appropriating funding to help Taiwan participate in its International Military Education & Training (IMET) program to enhance interoperability and capabilities for joint operations of the Taiwanse and US militaries. The funding for Taiwan’s participation in the program is mentioned in the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2023, a US$1.7 trillion spending bill funding the US federal government for the fiscal year 2023. It covers funding for military support for Ukraine, defense spending and regions affected by natural disasters. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that IMET is an important US
RSS