Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Wang Yu-chi’s (王郁琦) responses to recent incidents involving cross-strait ties show that he is no longer fit for the job, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) said yesterday.
“Since you did not concern yourself with things within the Mainland Affairs Council’s sphere, you are not qualified to be its minister anymore,” Yao told Wang at a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee.
Wang had been invited to the meeting to present his policy report to the committee.
Photo: CNA
Yao asked Wang to state his position on several recent incidents that have raised national security concerns, including a permit granted to a cross-strait association to use five China-registered vehicles in Taiwan from Sept. 12 to Tuesday last week and wind power companies receiving permission to install offshore wind turbines using Chinese factory ships.
Yao also asked Wang about a NT$80,000 fine imposed on Chen Kun-shan (陳錕山), a remote-sensing scientist who defected to China in September last year, as well as what is known as China’s “Thousand Talents” program to recruit high-tech experts from Taiwan.
Wang said the council had not been involved in the decision to allow Chinese-registered vehicles into Taiwan, which had been made by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), and that he only learned about it afterward.
However, Wang appeared to indicate that he would not have objected to giving permission if he had been consulted.
The only problem he saw with the permit was the application of the Road Traffic Security Rules (道路交通安全規則), Wang said.
He said he has told Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) to revise the rules under which Chinese vehicles are regarded as imports from a “foreign country.”
The definition is not in line with the “status quo” of the cross-strait relationship, Wang told the committee.
“It is not a state-to-state relationship,” Wang said, adding that Chinese vehicles should be defined as imports from “offshore.”
As for the use of Chinese factory ships, Wang said the council had informed the ministry in writing about the national security concerns raised by the Ministry of National Defense and said that they should be taken into account.
“We [the council] would respect the MOTC’s decision in this case if it was able to clear up the defense ministry’s concerns,” Wang said.
Wang also defended the National Immigration Agency’s decision in the Chen case.
The agency determined that Chen was not involved in sensitive research projects when he worked at the Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research at National Central University and thus imposed the fine in accordance with the rules governing visits by public servants to China, which Chen was subject to, Wang said.
“Questions surrounding whether Chen has leaked state secrets to China are still under investigation by the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau,” he said.
As for China’s “Thousand Talents” plan, Wang said: “We have to improve the [employment] environment to keep talented people at home.”
“The whole world is vying to recruit talent from overseas countries… Even if we can prevent talented people going to China, we will not be able to stop them from going to Singapore, Hong Kong or the US,” he said.
Dissatisfied with Wang’s replies, Yao said the minister was not fit for his position.
China has been systematically encroaching on Taiwan, but Wang appears to be indifferent to national security concerns, Yao said.
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