Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed an amendment to the National Security Act (國家安全法) that would increase the minimum punishments for treason.
Article 7 of the act states that “any person, who intends to endanger national security or social stability and commits an offense” such as espionage or the sharing of national secrets with a foreign force would face up to seven years in prison and a fine of NT$50 million to NT$100 million (US$1.56 million to US$3.12 million).
Chen proposed increasing the minimum prison term to 10 years and the minimum fine to NT$100 million to deter those who would spy on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The amendment would also increase the maximum fine to NT$200 million.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
He also proposed expanding the scope of information-sharing that would be considered a crime in the act.
Article 2 currently lists “confidential documents, drawings, images, messages, articles or electromagnetic records that are for official use.”
That should be expanded to include items that “should be kept secret for national security or public interests,” Chen said.
He also proposed amending the National Intelligence Service Act (國家情報工作法) to require the establishment of specialized national security courts to be handled by judges with professional knowledge related to national security.
The judges would receive a certain number of hours of national security-related training, and would undergo annual courses, he said.
Separately, DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) and others proposed a draft amendment to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) that would require the revocation of long-term residency rights of Chinese spouses found to present a national security risk.
Under the proposal, those found to have committed offenses of civil strife or foreign aggression as stipulated in the Criminal Code would be deported.
However, those deemed to present a national security risk, but who have not committed any crime, would only have their long-term residency rights revoked and would be permitted to remain in Taiwan as a dependent of their spouse.
Crimes to which the amended measures would apply would include developing organizations for the CCP or stealing business secrets from companies producing core technologies, as stipulated in the National Security Act, Shen said.
The measures would also apply to those who have contravened the National Intelligence Service Act by delivering confidential information to China, and those who have breached the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) by intervening in election activities and have been prosecuted, or received deferred prosecution, he said.
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