Independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) yesterday urged the government to crack down on the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), citing possible serious breaches of the law, including colluding with an enemy state.
Lim told Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) at the legislature that CUPP founder Chang An-le (張安樂) had stated publicly that the party would form a “red” propaganda team to promote unification with China, including the possibility of “armed insurrection.”
“Our government must prohibit such brazen flouting of the law by those acting as collaborators with China,” Lim said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Chang said in a Chinese radio interview that the CUPP had recruited young Taiwanese, turning them from “green” to “red,” and that it was planning an armed insurrection within Taiwan when China launches an invasion of Taiwan, Lim said.
China’s propaganda warfare comes in many forms and in Taiwan it has the CUPP networking with criminal gangs, recruiting Taiwanese and creating havoc in society, he said.
Chang can speak freely, because he has the right to freedom of expression, “but he is promoting Chinese propaganda and calling for an armed insurrection, which is breaking the law,” Lim said.
Chang has breached Article 103 of the Criminal Code for colluding with a foreign state to start a war against the Republic of China (ROC); Article 104 on colluding with a foreign state to subject the ROC to the rule of such a state; and Article 105 on citizens joining the armed forces of an enemy state to fight against the ROC, Lim said, adding that the Criminal Code states that “offenders shall be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.”
Lim also cited breaches of Article 106 on people aiding the enemy or undermining the ROC military during a war; and Article 107 on persons recruiting for an enemy, inducing troops to surrender to the enemy, desert or mutiny, disclosing military secrets to an enemy state and conducting espionage to aid an enemy state.
In response, Su said that Taiwan is a free, democratic nation, but some people abuse these freedoms.
“We have rule of law here and those who break the law will be punished accordingly,” Su said. “This kind of talk is just irritating to most people, but we will request that the judiciary investigate these alleged breaches of the law.”
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS