About one dozen Chinese ID card applications have been discovered in New Taipei City, Taichung, Yunlin County and Kaohsiung, and have already been transferred to the Ministry of the Interior, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday.
The investigations came after a video by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) alleged that up to 200,000 Taiwanese had obtained Chinese ID cards in the past decade, which they filed for while in Taiwan.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The bureau is aware of cases of Taiwanese applying for Chinese IDs and has received a large amount of intelligence that must be verified before being referred to the judicial authorities, Tsai told lawmakers at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
Most cases involve Taiwanese citizens and those who encouraged others to apply for Chinese ID cards online might face criminal charges, Tsai added.
The claim that 200,000 Taiwanese already possess Chinese ID cards is exaggerated, and only about a dozen cases have been found by the NSB so far, with a few more identified by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, he added.
Separately, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said 12 people are under investigation for having Chinese ID cards, one of whom has already had their household registration revoked, while another has been notified, but the process might be slightly delayed due to mail delivery issues.
The identity of the person whose registration has been revoked cannot be revealed due to personal data protection laws, Liu added.
In other news, a lieutenant surnamed Lin (林) of the 53rd Army Engineer Group’s Support Battalion on Dec. 19 last year showed Pa’s “China’s ‘united front’ documentary” during a broadcast of Juguang Garden (莒光園地).
Lin also told soldiers that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party were connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
Asked whether the lieutenant’s actions, and bringing of societal and political ideologies into the military was appropriate, Tsai said that the military must remain politically neutral in accordance with the National Defense Act (國防法).
Tsai said he would need to further understand the case before being able to comment.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
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