The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday said it would ask the Constitutional Court to dissolve the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP).
The ministry in a statement said that its Political Party Review Committee approved a resolution to seek the dissolution of the New Taipei City-based CUPP with a required two-thirds vote after inviting the party’s leadership to make a statement in its defense.
The ministry said that the party is known to be involved in organized crime, and has core members who have “repeatedly” contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法), the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) and election laws, thus “endangering national security, social stability and fair elections.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
While the ministry “respects” the political stances of the CUPP, it “cannot accept” repeated national security breaches and acts of violence by party members, the statement said.
The CUPP’s “links to foreign forces” and “use of a political party name as a cover for organized crime,” among other things, contravene the Constitution and laws, even if the party does not hold any seats in the legislature, or in any city or county councils, it said.
Under the Constitution authorities can request the dissolution of a political party whose “goals or activities endanger the existence of the Republic of China or the nation’s free and democratic constitutional order,” the ministry said.
The ministry acknowledged that its request might be complicated by an ongoing political dispute over Constitutional Court vacancies and a reform bill, which has left the court’s operations in a cloud of uncertainty.
A request to disband the CUPP would be submitted as soon as the court’s situation permits, the ministry 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
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
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