National security officials have recommended criminalizing the display of the five-star People’s Republic of China (PRC) flag under social order law, as legislators deliberate an amendment that would consider the act a national security offense.
A bill proposed by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) and supported by 29 other lawmakers would amend the National Security Act (國家安全法) to ban actions that damage national identity or work in favor of a hostile foreign power.
Those found guilty could be fined NT$10,000 to NT$100,000, and related articles would be confiscated.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
It would also include fines of up to NT$50,000 for “raising, lowering, hanging, displaying, holding or brandishing” any political or military flag of a hostile foreign power in public places.
However, the rules would not apply to events that have been given approval to fly such flags by a competent authority or when they are flown to accord with international convention.
The PRC flag problem has existed for a long time, but amending national security law is not the appropriate way to impose criminal liability for contraventions of “national identity,” security officials said.
They instead recommended changing the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) to legislate against such acts, with fines of NT$10,000 to NT$50,000.
The National Security Act covers serious felonies, an official said, adding that it is not suitable for criminalizing the display of a flag.
If law enforcement officials have trouble determining whether something is in contravention of national security law, they could be criticized for running a police state, they said.
On the other hand, if the issue continues to be ignored, it would allow China to keep using the nation’s democratic principles for its own “united front” work, they added.
After reviewing the proposal, the official recommended applying a minor punishment.
The issue is ultimately one of social order, as seeing the PRC flag causes discomfort to many Taiwanese and could lead to violent conflict, the official said.
The National Security Council has reportedly already suggested that the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) be amended to criminalize the sharing of political propaganda or misinformation under the instruction or assistance of a foreign power.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
RSS