Sixty-two military personnel held Chinese residence permits, including two volunteer service members, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said at the legislature in Taipei yesterday, citing a probe that ended last month.
None of the personnel had Chinese passports, ID cards or permanent residency status, Koo told a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
The personnel have been barred from combat operation centers, as well as units that handle sensitive information such as intelligence collection, information and communications, and research and development, he said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
They also cannot be aides to commanding officers, he added.
Those with Chinese residency are also prevented from serving in aviation or naval units, and cannot operate new weapons systems, Koo said.
Media in February reported that a sailor surnamed Yang (楊) had obtained a Chinese ID card without his knowledge after his mother, a Chinese national who gained Taiwanese residency after marriage, applied on his behalf.
Yang said he wanted to renounce his Chinese citizenship.
The Ministry of National Defense in the past few days said that it had helped Yang declare his intent to the National Immigration Agency to retain his Taiwanese nationality.
Yang has been reassigned to a position that does not involve sensitive or classified information, the defense ministry said.
The screening process would be tightened to require volunteer service members to declare upon application that they hold no dual nationality or residency, it said.
The committee yesterday reviewed draft amendments to the Act of Military Service for Officers and Non-commissioned Officers of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍軍官士官服役條例) that would strip the military pensions of service members convicted of and imprisoned for rebellion, treason or contraventions of the National Security Act (國安法) during active service or after retirement.
Koo said that on Jan. 1, he approved 54 additional positions for the counterintelligence unit and personnel are being recruited to fill them.
Koo was also asked about shipbuilding.
Asked whether Taiwan would boost cooperation with the US in shipbuilding and ship-repair operations, Koo said that Taiwan “intends to do so,” without elaborating.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
RSS