Many former Executive Yuan officials and mayors have abused the regulations by relaxing the restrictions on former officials visiting China within three years of leaving office to anywhere from three months to one year, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said yesterday.
Lee said former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) application to travel to Hong Kong was turned down earlier this month based on Article 26 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), but many former ministers and mayors are manipulating the regulations on visiting China.
Former Presidential Office secretary-general Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) should have faced restrictions on visiting other nations after leaving office, but he approved his own application before he left, Lee said.
Article 9 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) says that ministerial-level officials, city mayors and people engaged in any business involving national secrecy in national defense, foreign affairs, science and technology or the intelligence agencies must receive approval from a government review committee before visiting China within three years of leaving office.
However, Lee said the same article also states that “whether the person is involved in national secrecy shall be determined by the agencies they have served, the entrusting agencies, or the entrusted organizations or institutions in accordance with the relevant provisions and the nature of the business,” so the restriction period can be shortened if requested.
“This is where the problem lies: Nearly all former ministerial officials and mayors in the Ma administration applied to have the restriction period shortened as soon as they left office,” Lee said.
Former Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) approved his own application before he left office, allowing him to visit China three months after stepping down and “Hu has visited China eight times in the one-and-a-half years since he left office,” Lee said.
“He only applied for [permission for] the first two visits and did not apply for the other six because his own approval had become effective,” Lee said.
Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) relaxed the restrictions on himself to just three months and four days after he left office and he has visited China three times in the one-and-a-half years since he left office — after filing only one application, the lawmaker said.
Other officials who relaxed the restriction on visiting China for themselves include former minister of culture Hung Meng-chi (洪孟啟) and former National Palace Museum director Feng Ming-chu (馮明珠), who cut their waiting period to three months; and former minister of justice Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) and former minister of education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華), who cut their waiting time to six months, Lee said.
Former Presidential Office secretary-general Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), former Executive Yuan secretary-general Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎), former minister of the interior Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁) and many others cut their restrictions to one year, he said.
“Why are they all so eager to visit China? The convention was that most of the applications to visit China within the restricted period would be granted by the review committee as long as the purpose is appropriate … but why have these former officials from Ma’s administration all been so desperate to lift the ban on themselves?” the lawmaker asked.
Lee urged the government to thoroughly investigate former officials who relaxed the restrictions on their travel and for the Mainland Affairs Council to review the law.
His biggest worry is that all these visits by former officials and mayors might be aimed at paving the way for a rumored September meeting between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Lee said.
There is a rumor that the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party are planning to “develop close cooperation” to gang up on the pan-green camp, he said.
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