Legislators from across the political spectrum voiced concern over possible breaches of national security after Lao Tse-kang (勞則康), the father of disgraced 601st Air Cavalry Brigade Lieutenant Colonel Lao Nai-cheng (勞乃成), faced a legislative hearing yesterday.
Lawmakers tied Lao Tse-kang, a retired top-ranking officer who was deputy chief of staff at Army Command Headquarters, to China during the hearing where he apologized for his son’s role in allowing a group of civilians onto an air force base where they took photographs sitting in an Apache AH-64E helicopter and posted them on Facebook, an incident that has tarnished the image of the military.
At a news conference after the hearing, the senior Lao said his son would cooperate with the investigation and face any legal consequences, while asking that he be given a second chance.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
However, legislators were more concerned over Lao Tse-kang’s purported links with China, asking questions regarding possible leaks of the helicopter’s hardware, software and the weapons systems.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said she had information confirming reports by some military experts and netizens that Lao Tse-kang had intimate Chinese business ties after moving across the Strait and operating a petrochemical company there for about two decades.
“The senior Lao retired from the army in 1987 and moved to China in 1988, setting up a petrochemical company in Hangzhou City, Zhe-jiang Province,” Lo said. “However, the law says any retired military officers with previous access to materials concerning national security must wait at least two years before visiting China.”
“I find it incredulous that Lao [Tse-kang] has close business ties in China, yet his son was in charge of the most advanced weapons system in Taiwan,” she said.
“We should fully investigate this matter,” Lo added.
The petrochemical industry is highly regulated by the Chinese government, and experts and netizens have posted news reports that indicate Lao Tse-kang attended industry and political meetings in China, suggesting he has cultivated relationships in Chinese business and political circles, Lo said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) also questioned military officials at the legislative session.
“We know that Lao [Tse-kang] went to China and started a petrochemical business there after retiring,” Chen said. “Why did the military not make background checks on his son? Do you not know he is handling the most advanced US attack helicopter, which has many highly classified weapons systems?”
“With his father’s good relationships in China, many people believe there is a chance that Lao Nai-cheng leaked classified military information to China,” Chen said. “His family’s connections in China cannot be discounted.”
“I see this is a very dangerous situation,” he added. “I see that the military has been too lax and negligent in protecting national security.”
KMT Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) said that when Lao Nai-cheng took the Apache’s interactive helmet off the base to wear at a party, there was a risk that signals it emitted could be picked up over a smartphone app and passed on to Beijing.
China is famous for stealing technology and building copies through reverse engineering, Ma said.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
The government-funded human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is to be expanded to boys at junior-high school starting in September, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. The Taiwan Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Taiwan Immunization Vision and Strategy, the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan, the Taiwan Head and Neck Society, the Formosa Cancer Foundation and the National Alliance of Presidents of Parents Associations held a joint news conference in Taipei yesterday to raise public awareness about the risks of HPV infection, regardless of gender. Invited to give an address, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun
RSS