Lawmakers yesterday passed the third reading of amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act (少年事件處理法), which would bolster protections for young people detained by police or facing judicial procedures.
The amendments would bolster protections for young people from confinement and handcuffing, and help prevent injuries and self-harm while investigations are being conducted, lawmakers said.
The act defines protections for people aged 12 to 18, who are typically processed by the juvenile system if they are charged, but judicial experts and reform advocates have said that the current system can infringe on their rights.
The proposed amendments include provisions to guarantee a youth suspect the presence of a parent, legal guardian and lawyer when being questioned or making statements, which must be preceded by a written notice.
The changes would ban police and judicial officials from using confinement devices, including handcuffs and shackles, on youth suspects, except in serious cases or when flight is a strong possibility.
Separately, legislators approved the third reading of amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法), to deal with abuse of judicial resources.
To expedite trials and facilitate justice for people affected by crime, the judicial resources amendments would bar cases from being appealed to the Supreme Court when appellate courts have upheld earlier decisions in cases of violence in causing bodily harm or death, and possession of more than 20g of category 1 or 2 narcotics.
Under separate amendments approved by the legislature on Tuesday, people found guilty of vandalizing or hacking into critical infrastructure would face a sentence of up to seven years and a NT$10 million (US$325,034) fine.
The infrastructure amendments, which the Cabinet passed to the legislature in April, apply to public transportation systems, postal services, hospitals and financial institutions, as well as telecommunications, nuclear and space facilities and utilities.
The increased punishments are a response to a spate of incidents, including two undersea communications cables linking Taiwan and Lienchiang County being severed in February, the Cabinet said.
In addition, electricity cables at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport were allegedly cut by construction workers in March last year, leading to a power outage affecting the airport’s Terminal 2, it said.
Cabinet spokesman Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) said that the new rules were part of an effort to “deter illegal activities” aimed at compromising the country’s critical infrastructure.
The Cabinet would work with government agencies to bolster law enforcement to protect critical facilities, Lin said.
Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers said that the amendments would provide law enforcement agencies with “consistent” legal tools to better protect critical infrastructure in Taiwan, as current laws were too lenient on illegal activities.
Under existing laws, the maximum punishment for severing undersea cables is a prison term of less than two years, the lawmakers said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS