The Ministry of National Defense’s proposed amendments to the General Mobilization Act (全民防衛動員準備法) have raised concerns over whether the changes would affect personal liberties.
The act was promulgated on Nov. 14, 2001, and was amended in 2014 and 2019.
The ministry yesterday said the law is focused too much on preparatory measures and lacks regulations defining a chain of command, a legal basis for expropriation during times of war and other issues.
Photo: CNA
The efficacy of the nation’s mobilization efforts is vital to its survival, the ministry said.
Article 13 of the act stipulates that all units in charge of mobilization readiness should ensure that personnel, equipment and facilities are prepared through inspections, inventory management and planning, to ensure the nation can defend itself in the event of an invasion.
A declaration of mobilization shows that a country is entering a time of alert, and necessary measures must be implemented, the ministry said.
The proposed amendments would protect the nation and ensure that Taiwanese can survive an attack, the ministry said, adding that it would consider all opinions before tendering another version for review.
It said it welcomes public input on the amendments, and called for calm and level-minded debates on the issue.
The ministry meanwhile denied a media report that the proposed amendment sought to use child labor to manufacture arms.
A section of the bill states: “School defense groups should assist with the production of military supplies.”
The ministry said the sentence does not mean that students would help manufacture ammunition.
The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that the Ministry of Education had asked local education offices nationwide to prepare lists of students aged 16 or above for mobilization purposes.
The newspaper said the list would be uploaded to the All-out Mobilization Defense Agency Web site and that the pupils would be used to manufacture munitions.
The ministry said creating such lists was regular practice, adding that the information would be uploaded to the Internet for ease of administrative management.
By law, school defense groups are not responsible for the wartime production of ammunition at military plants, the ministry said, adding that the groups would help manufacture 10 types of products, including food.
Additional reporting by CNA
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: China would not blockade Taiwan, because President Xi respects him, and Russia would not have invaded if he were president, he said Former US president and the Republican candidate in next month’s presidential election Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on China if China were to “go into Taiwan,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you, at 150 percent to 200 percent,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview with the WSJ published on Friday. Asked if he would use military force against a blockade on Taiwan by China, Trump said it would not come to that because Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) respected
The Taipei Department of Transportation discouraged YouBike 2.0E users from taking them on long-distance trips after a Taipei city councilor said that riders often use the new electric bike, YouBike 2.0E, to climb Yangmingshan (陽明山). Taipei earlier this year began offering the first 30 minutes of YouBike 2.0 rentals for free, with Taipei and New Taipei offering the YouBike 2.0E on Aug. 30 to encourage rider usage. For YouBike 2.0, the rate is NT$10 per 30 minutes within the first four hours, NT$20 per 30 minutes for five to eight hours and NT$40 per 30 minutes after eight hours. Meanwhile, for e-bikes,
RESOURCE RICH: Taiwan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and has up to 30 gigawatts of the potential energy, of which 10 gigawatts could be economically viable Academia Sinica and CPC Corp yesterday began drilling the nation’s first deep geothermal well in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township (員山). The 4km-deep well is expected to take 18 months to complete and has an estimated investment of NT$337 million (US$10.54 million), Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said. “While Taiwan has up to 30 gigawatts of potential deep geothermal energy, with an estimated 10 gigawatts being economically viable, only by digging wells can we determine the actual amount of commercially viable geothermal energy,” Liao said at the project’s opening ceremony. Data collected during and after the excavation process would be used for future
HACKERS’ MARKET: Chat logs about Taiwan and documents outlining ways to take over online accounts were leaked from a company that sells data from hacks Taiwanese cybersecurity specialists found 577 leaked documents which show that the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, a documentary released last month by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed. The filmmakers behind Tracking China’s Leaked Documents said they spent six months visiting seven countries, including Taiwan, where they interviewed members of TeamT5, a malware research and cybersecurity firm, which found the leaked documents. TeamT5 said they discovered a string of mysterious URLs on the social media platform X, which they suspected could be accounts created by hackers or people who leaked data, which led