The Taiwan Statebuilding Party yesterday criticized the Ministry of National Defense (MND) for purchasing insurance plans for defense officials and some military personnel from Want Want Group, saying that the conglomerate’s alleged close links to Beijing could undermine national security.
Union Insurance Co has been offering insurance plans to the nation’s armed forces since 2009, said Yen Ming-wei (顏銘緯), director of strategy of the party, formerly known as Taiwan Radical Wings.
The insured personnel include officials assigned to the Presidential Office as well as those in the Ministry of National Defense, the National Security Bureau, the Coast Guard Administration, the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and military academy students, he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The annual bill for the plans runs to more than NT$200 million (US$6.43 million), he said.
Those insured are required to provide Union Insurance with their national identification card number, place of birth, rank, insurance beneficiary and other personal information, he said.
Given Want Want Group’s alleged links to Beijing, “there is a risk the data could be exposed, that national security could be compromised without a war,” Yen said.
The UK’s Financial Times on Wednesday last week reported that the Chinese-language China Times and CtiTV — two media outlets owned by Want Want — allegedly take instructions from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on how to prepare their news, party spokesman Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) said.
Trusting the conglomerate with sensitive data related to the armed forces is “highly dangerous and ridiculous,” he said.
When questions were raised in 2012 about the insurance policies’ possible impact on national security, then-National Security Bureau director-general Tsai Der-sheng (蔡得勝) said the government would find another insurance company for the armed forces, but it never did, Chen said.
The ministry must provide an explanation for why it did not make the change and it must immediately replace the insurance company, the party said.
Ministry of National Defense spokesman Shih Shun-wen (史順文) said Union Insurance is a legally registered company and qualified bidder for government insurance programs.
While Chinese companies are banned from bidding for insurance programs for the armed forces, the company is not listed as a Chinese company by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, he said.
According to the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法) and insurance policy contracts, the company is required to keep personal information confidential, he said.
The company only has information about the number of military personnel insured, as personal details would not be provided unless individuals need to apply for compensation, Shih said.
No personal information has been leaked by the company, he added.
Additional reporting by Huang Hsin-po
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