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The identity of the person whose registration has been revoked cannot be revealed due to personal data protection laws, Liu added.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
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe