Declassified files of the Taiwan Garrison Command from more than three decades ago showed that known members of the Bamboo Union gang held important positions in ministries, as well as the military, police and intelligence services, the Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine reported yesterday.
“From the early 1960s on, the KMT government knew about and implicitly permitted members of Bamboo Union and other organized crime gangs to take up jobs in Taiwan’s law-enforcement agencies and secret services, including Taiwan’s top intelligence agency, the National Security Bureau [NSB], all branches of the armed forces and the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau [MJIB],” the magazine said.
The documents listed gang members, with a man surnamed Huang (黃) being listed as the NSB’s official representative to the US, while another NSB officer surnamed Hsu (徐) was named as the bureau’s representative to Singapore, along with many others who were shown to have immigrated to the US in the 1960s.
The gang members also entered other sectors and took up executive positions at financial and construction companies and government media outlets, such as the Central News Agency, as well as movie production companies, newspapers and other mass broadcasting firms, the report said.
“Starting in 1960, 13 Bamboo Union members entered academies for the army, air force and navy. Also six known gang members held jobs at the MJIB ... later becoming the basis of an intimate working relationship between the KMT government and criminal gangs,” it said.
The report sparked discussion online.
“Is this not an open secret in Taiwan?” an Internet user asked. “Now we have the documents to prove the links between the KMT and criminal gangs.”
Another wrote: “This is not a surprise, we have known all along of the close connections between the KMT and gangsters.”
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
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
RSS