Opposition lawmakers yesterday stalled a review of proposed amendments that would place greater scrutiny on elected representatives traveling to China, drawing a rebuke from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers.
Procedure Committee members from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party voted against it, preventing the Internal Administration Committee from reviewing the bill, which was cosponsored by DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) and 17 others.
The proposed amendments to articles 9 and 91 of 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) would require elected representatives to obtain the approval of national security officials before visiting China.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The proposed amendments would affect lawmakers, city councilors and county councilors.
KMT Legislator Liao Hsien-hsiang (廖先翔) said at the committee that people have a constitutionally guaranteed right to travel and that behavior, rather than geography, should be the determiner of whether there is a national security risk.
KMT Legislator Chen Yu-chen (陳玉珍) said it is presumptuous to target visits to China for enhanced regulations without applying similar restrictions to the US, Japan and South Korea.
Shen said that the committee was not the venue for such discussions, as its remit is to create an agenda for other committees to review proposed laws, not examine them.
Committee members voted along party lines 10-8 to set aside the bill.
Killing the bill at the agenda-making stage deprived lawmakers of the opportunity to examine the proposal, Shen wrote on Facebook.
The opposition’s tactics have “evolved from denying discussion at the committee level to simply terminating the committee’s proceedings,” he wrote.
The day’s events showed that the committee has turned into an affiliate of KMT Legislator Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁), DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said, accusing Fu of blocking the bill to prevent the truth about his visits to China from coming to light.
Separately, Shen proposed amendments to other laws that would authorize the government to rescind the resident alien status of Chinese spouses convicted of a crime related to national security.
The amendments would add the condition of having no convictions for crimes related to national security for Chinese spouses to be granted long-term or permanent residency due to marriage with a Taiwanese, he said.
The spouses would lose their long-term residency, permanent residency and household registration, he said.
Chinese spouses who breach Taiwan’s national security laws under duress from China’s intelligence services would be granted leniency and be allowed to live with dependents after serving their sentence, he said.
The loss of residency and deportation would be reversed should a higher court overturn the conviction, and reapplication of residency would be possible upon completing the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement, he said.
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
RSS