President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is completely ignoring the hostility China has displayed toward Taiwan and its ultimate purpose to bring Taiwan into its fold by offering immunity and privileges to a planned representative office for China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) in Taiwan, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said yesterday.
The move is tantamount to opening the door to Chinese spies and helping China take over Taiwan, he added.
The Cabinet on Thursday approved a draft bill governing the establishment of representative offices on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Under the bill, the ARATS branches in Taiwan and staff at the offices would be granted certain special rights to allow them to carry out their duties without legal interference.
Included in the special rights are provisions that no one can enter the branches without the permission of those offices; their property and assets would be immune from search, confiscation or expropriation; and documents and archives would be inviolable. The bill stipulates that Chinese staff at the ARATS offices in Taiwan would enjoy immunity from Taiwan’s jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in the exercise of their duties, and would have certain tax exemptions and other privileges to be decided at the discretion of the Cabinet.
Huang, who formerly served as Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) minister, said that even the US, a close friend of Taiwan, does not give judicial immunity to Taiwanese diplomats, “and yet the Ma government is giving China such privileges, which could constitute a substantial threat to Taiwan’s national security.”
Huang questioned the use of setting up such offices, saying that as the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, as well as tourism agencies, already have offices in China, he saw no legitimate reason to set up another governmental office.
It is “international common knowledge” that Chinese embassy officials are tasked with multiple jobs, one of which is espionage, he said.
“It is surprising the Ma administration would allow such privileges to the Chinese despite this knowledge. The staff sent to Taiwan may attempt to gather sensitive information during their stay,” he said.
Taiwan is a country governed by the rule of law, but China is a country governed by the word of men, Huang said.
To give Chinese officials in Taiwan judicial immunity is to sanction illegal activities during their stay in Taiwan, Huang added, calling for the labor and financial sectors to be on the alert as the Chinese government often supports corporate espionage to steal intellectual property or corporate secrets.
Democratic Progressive Party Policy Research Committee Executive Director Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), who also once served as MAC minister, said that for such offices to be set up, three prerequisites must be met: first, the offices cannot evolve into the equivalent of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; second, the office’s mandate must be clearly defined; third, the offices should adhere to international diplomatic regulations.
Taiwan does not need a platform for China’s “united front” (統戰) tactics, he said.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to 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), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition