Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) is facing calls to explain allegations that she passed classified material about Taiwan’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program to a foreign state, any link to the arrest of six South Korean engineers who worked on the project and her reasons to attempt to block the program’s budget.
Ma allegedly compiled more than 3,000 files relating to design and construction plans, which she passed on to the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau and the South Korean Mission in Taipei.
Political commentator and former KMT member Lee Zheng-hao (李正皓) yesterday said that the accusations were based on information from former naval commander Huang Cheng-hui (黃征輝).
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The files contained classified information that ended up in the hands of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, Lee said.
The materials also included voice recordings between retired navy captain Kuo Hsi (郭璽), a consultant for the submarine program, and two foreign contractors, shown in the files as “SI” and “GL,” which Lee said refer to SI Innotec, a South Korean marine engineering firm, and Gavron Ltd, a firm registered in Gibraltar reportedly headed by retired British naval officers.
Beijing has for many years warned other countries against taking part in Taiwanese naval upgrades, so foreign contractors had to conceal their involvement, and register new companies outside their home countries to provide technical support and transfer new technology to help state-backed shipbuilder CSBC Corp Taiwan to complete the first domestic-built submarine, Lee said.
The six engineers were arrested because South Korean intelligence obtained the information, Lee said.
Authorities detained them when they returned home last year amid an investigation into leaking of trade secrets while working for SI Innotec, he said.
The engineers, who were helping Taiwan’s cause, are barred from leaving South Korea, he said, adding that the evidence is clear that Ma has contravened national security regulations by passing high-level classified files to a foreign state.
She must face charges of contravening Article 109 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence, he said.
“I urge Ma to halt her re-election campaign so that she can concentrate on facing a judicial investigation,” he added.
Meanwhile, Justin Wu (吳崢), a former New Power Party member who is running for a legislative seat in New Taipei City for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), accused Ma of abusing her position as a member of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee by taking every opportunity to interfere with the submarine program.
Wu presented documents from when he worked as a legislative aide, showing that when the committee deliberated on the submarine’s design, Ma sought to cut NT$1.42 billion (US$44.02 million) from the program’s budget, proposing a NT$610 million cut in 2019 and NT$810 million in 2020.
“Ma sought to interfere with the submarine program from start to finish, and wanted to cut most of its budget,” Wu said. “She does not want Taiwan to have its own indigenous submarines.”
Ma was one of a number of KMT and pan-blue camp legislators who fought vigorously against the program, he said.
Kuo has in media interviews accused Ma of “betraying our nation” and that she had labeled the submarines “undersea coffins.”
He has said that he accompanied Ma on visits to China, where she was treated as a special guest and had meetings with officials from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
Ma yesterday said that Kuo and others were trying to shift blame.
“Most people do not understand the program details,” she said. “Most of the revealed information came from Kuo and DPP politicians, as many of them also participated in closed-door legislative deliberations about the program.”
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
RSS