In a bid to prevent Chinese Communist Party infiltration of retired military personnel, the Veterans Affairs Council (VAC) said it would propose amendments to the Veterans Assistance Act (國軍退除役官兵輔導條例) to expand the scope of penalties for retired personnel found engaging in espionage.
The planned amendments would increase the range of benefit suspensions and introduce new penalties for retired personnel who do not receive monthly pensions, it said.
Specifically, the draft amendments would alter Article 32, Section 1 of the act to specify that retired personnel who meet legal conditions for suspending all or part of their retirement payments would also have their rights under the act suspended for the duration of that penalty, it said.
Photo: Liu Yu-chieh, Taipei Times
For those who do not receive a monthly pension, the draft adds a clause stipulating that people who contravene Article 9, Section 3 of 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) — which regulates permit requirements for travel to China — could have their benefits under the Veterans Assistance Act suspended for between one and five years, depending on the fine imposed, it said, adding that the goal is to “strengthen deterrence.”
The proposed amendment has been submitted to the Executive Yuan for review, after which the criteria for determining suspension periods would be worked out, it said.
The VAC said it drafted the amendments after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) expressed concerns over China’s 22 guidelines announced in June last year to penalize “die-hard” Taiwanese independence activists.
China has since issued bounties for 18 members of what it called Taiwan’s “psychological warfare unit” and claimed to “open investigations” against Taiwanese, Shen said, adding that some retired Taiwanese military personnel even appeared in the media claiming that those wanted by China for alleged crimes under the measures would be unable to travel abroad for life.
Although such remarks are not direct expressions of allegiance to China, they seriously damage military morale and internal cohesion, he said.
Separately, to curb acts of allegiance to China among active-duty personnel, the Ministry of National Defense said it has drafted amendments to Article 24 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法). The proposal would impose new criminal penalties and increase the sentence for “surrender due to dereliction of duty.”
It also adds penalties for preparatory and conspiratorial offenses, the ministry said, adding that the goal is to safeguard national security and military interests.
According to the ministry’s draft, the sentence for dereliction leading to surrender would be raised to three to 10 years in prison, from one to seven years. A new clause would also impose one to seven years in prison on anyone found guilty of “expressing allegiance to the enemy through speech, behavior, text, images, electronic records, technological means or other methods, if such actions cause military harm.”
Both drafts have been submitted to the Executive Yuan for review.
In related news, concerns are mounting after reports that Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee (瑞幸咖啡), which recently entered the Taiwanese market, collects sensitive user data such as personal information, location data and Web-browsing records through its ordering app at its US branches. Taiwanese legislators questioned whether the company poses cybersecurity risks in Taiwan.
DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) wrote in a social media post on Saturday that China’s infiltration tactics are rapidly shifting toward more covert commercial-economic and cybertheft models.
Citing Luckin Coffee and Chinese-funded concert organizers as examples, she said such firms might enter Taiwan through “fake agency, real operation” schemes to bypass investment reviews.
Such schemes would facilitate the collection of personal data through apps such as that used by Luckin Coffee, she said.
South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang suffered a data breach affecting 30 million accounts because a Chinese employee colluded to leak the information, Lin said.
Under China’s National Intelligence Law, all Chinese citizens are obligated to cooperate with Chinese state intelligence work, she said.
“Cybersecurity is national security. Strict measures are needed to close fake agency loopholes and prevent China from siphoning Taiwanese data,” Lin said.
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