Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators slammed interior ministry officials on Wednesday in a hearing on crime for failing to assure the public that the country is safer since Premier Su Tseng-chang (
KMT Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) presided over the first of five public hearings in the legislature on what Tsai and other KMT legislators said were high crime rates. Wednesday's hearing focused on the issue of phone scam organizations, which KMT Legislator Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍) said had proliferated in the absence of effective measures to hinder their activities.
"A show of hands, please. Who here has received a text message or call from a phone scam group at some point?" Hsu asked attendees; a majority raised their hands.
"Public safety is deteriorating steadily," Tsai said, adding that Taiwan was on the verge of becoming the "Republic of Scams" (詐騙共和國).
Deputy Minister of the Interior Lin Chung-sen (林中森) and National Police Agency General-Secretary Tsai Chun-chang (蔡俊章) said that the ministry had improved public safety considerably in the past year. Lin said that the establishment of a hotline and a high-tech criminal investigation center devoted to investigating phone scam cases had resulted in a 12 percent reduction in such cases over the past six months.
The Ministry of the Interior released a press statement on Wednesday that said the nation's overall crime rate was down more than 10 percent from March to August, compared with the crime rate during the same period last year.
The number of solved cases had increased more than 3 percent, according to the statement.
"In the past six months, no major criminal cases comparable to those involving Chang Hsi-ming (張錫明) and Lin Ming-hwa (林明華) have occurred," Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) told reporters at a press conference on Monday, referring to the notorious kidnappers who were apprehended last year.
But this did not convince the critics.
"Statistics are no use. Numbers don't comfort people!" said Tsai, raising his voice and waving his finger at the ministry and police officials in attendance.
Tsai and fellow KMT Legislator Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) said that recent opinion polls indicate the public is not satisfied with public safety, regardless of any positive statistics. They called on the ministries of the interior and justice to work harder to gain public confidence.
"We need more religion in society. Look at members of organizations like the Tzu Chi Foundation," Lin added, referring to the prominent Buddhist non-profit organization. "Do those people commit crimes? No, they don't."
Assistant Professor Chu Pei-lei (朱蓓蕾) of Central Police University said that a lack of cross-strait law enforcement made cracking down on organized crime rings difficult.
"Many of these rings that prey on Taiwanese are based in China, and given the lack of cross-strait communication channels, it's very hard to go after them," Chu said, adding that cross-strait crime should be addressed by national security policy and not categorized as a domestic crime issue.
"Phone scam operations are a political problem, too," she said, referring to their international character.
Hsu Mu-yuan (許木元), legislative liaison for the Ministry of the Interior, objected to the KMT legislators' rejection of the statistics.
"Administrative bodies deal in the language of statistics and facts, while polls are meant to gauge public sentiment," Hsu said, adding that statistics and polls were often incompatible.
"Although not 100 percent accurate, statistics are very significant in that they are useful references," Chu told the Taipei Times.
She also disagreed with the statement that statistics were "completely insignificant."
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
LIKE-MINDED COUNTRIES: Despite the threats from outside, Taiwan and Lithuania thrived and developed their economies, former president Tsai Ing-wen said Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday thanked Lithuania for its support of Taiwan, saying that both countries are united as partners in defending democracy. Speaking at a reception organized by the Lithuania-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group welcoming her on her first visit to the Baltic state, Tsai said that while she was president from 2016 to last year, many Lithuanian “friends” visited Taiwan. “And I told myself I have to be here. I am very happy that I am here, a wonderful country and wonderful people,” Tsai said. Taiwan and Lithuania are in similar situations as both are neighbors to authoritarian countries, she
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to visit the UK during her ongoing European trip, which originally included only Lithuania and Denmark, her office said today. Tsai departed Taiwan for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark, marking her second visit to the continent since her two-term presidency ended in May last year. Her office issued a statement today saying that Tsai would also visit the UK "for a few days," during which she is to meet with UK politicians and Taiwanese professionals, and visit academic and research institutions. Following Tsai's stop in Denmark, she is to visit the
RSS