Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
Article 9-1 of 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) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said.
To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or Chinese residential permits, regular inspections would be systematized from Jan. 1 next year, the council said.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Newly employed or transferred military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers would have to be cooperative in the inspections, otherwise their qualification screening and employment or reassignment could be suspended in accordance with the regulations and their employment contract, it said.
Given that the civil service system is massive and its employment of personnel varies widely, the regular inspection mechanism would come into force step by step, the council said.
At the preliminary stage, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to regular inspections, while others would be exempted, it said.
For state-run, partially privatized, government-invested or government-organized companies, inspections would be limited to appointees approved by the Executive Yuan, ministries and local governments, the council said.
For public schools at all levels, inspections would be limited to full-time education professionals as specified by relevant regulations, such as the Teaching Personnel Hiring Act (教育人員任用條例), it said.
Beijing went to the extreme of undermining the single citizenship policy long upheld by both sides of the Taiwan Strait simply to fulfill its “united front” ambitions, the council said.
It allows Taiwanese to obtain Chinese citizenship or household registration in China while holding their Taiwanese ID card, not only confusing Taiwanese about their national identity and breaching Taiwan’s regulations, but also threatening Taiwan’s national security, it said.
Therefore, personnel subject to inspections are expected to cooperate with the procedure to help safeguard national security, as well as to foster people’s trust in the civil service, the council said.
In other news, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers have proposed draft amendments allowing monthly pensions for retired generals to be cut or suspended if they engage in “united front” propaganda in cooperation with China.
The draft amendments to Article 9-3 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area were proposed jointly by DPP legislators Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) and Michelle Lin (林楚茵).
The proposal is aimed to curb retired high-ranking military officials’ remarks or behaviors that might affect national security, given that some of them help justify Chinese military coercion, such as warplanes circling Taiwan or expressed support for Chinese “united front” work in interviews with Chinese state-run media, the proposers wrote in the bill.
Currently Article 9-3 stipulates that people who have served as a political appointee at agencies relevant to national defense, foreign affairs, mainland affairs or national security at the level of deputy minister or major general or at a higher level, or those who have served as a head of an intelligence agency, cannot infringe upon national dignity by attending ceremonies or events held by Chinese agencies or groups involved in party, military, administrative or political affairs, they said.
It also stipulates that “behaviors infringing upon national dignity” refers to saluting the Chinese flag or emblems, or singing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) anthems or any other similar behaviors, the proposers said.
However, the phrasing of “any other similar behavior” might not be sufficient to warrant punishment for those who endorse “united front” propaganda, they said.
To enable the punishment, the phrasing should be reframed as “engaging in ‘united front’ propaganda in cooperation with China,” the proposers said.
Article 9-3 was added to the act in 2019 as part of the commonly known “Wu Sz-huai clauses” after retired lieutenant general Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) controversially attended a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and stood for the Chinese national anthem in Beijing in 2016.
Wang yesterday in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) said the Wu Sz-huai clauses prescribe that high-level defense or security officials or retired generals would be fined or have their pension cut if they harm national dignity by attending events held by the Chinese government or military.
However, such penalties might not be fully applicable to those who assist with Chinese military coercion or “united front” work, he said.
For example, some military personnel express loyalty to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, preach the CCP’s propaganda of “reuniting” with Taiwan by force or endorse the Chinese communist political process, although such behaviors would not technically be considered espionage, Wang said.
Many Taiwanese dislike such behaviors, especially as retired generals involved themselves in China-backed “united front” work to the detriment of the armed forces’ reputation while receiving pensions essentially from Taiwanese taxpayers, he said.
Therefore, the act must be amended to close this national security loophole, he added.
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