The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it plans to propose a bill to punish active military personnel who pledge loyalty to an enemy and damage military interests.
The amendment to Article 24 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法) is aimed at halting the infiltration efforts of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
A report released earlier this year by the National Security Bureau said that the number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan rose to 64 people last year, and 28 of them were active military personnel.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Under the proposed bill, active military personnel who pledge loyalty to an enemy — through speech, actions, words, pictures, digital records or other methods — sufficiently to harm military interests would face a prison sentence of one to seven years, the ministry said.
In the past few years, the military has collaborated with national security agencies to crack down on Chinese spying, which showed that the CCP’s espionage and spying activities are becoming more rampant, the ministry said.
In most of the spying cases, active military personnel were induced by money, investments or gambling, and were asked to sign documents or film videos to pledge their loyalty to the enemy, which seriously harms national security, it said.
It said it would submit the bill to the Executive Yuan for review after legal procedures are completed.
Under the Constitution and other laws, active military personnel must be loyal to the nation, protect its citizens and diligently perform their duty to safeguard national security, the ministry said.
A few members of the military have committed treason and unlawful acts, and under the new bill, they would not only be despised by the public, they would also not escape the law, it said.
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