The government is considering imposing a fine on Taiwanese who have Chinese residence permits, as part of efforts to deter Chinese cognitive warfare, a national security official said yesterday.
President William Lai (賴清德) at a news conference on Friday, after his first high-level national security meeting of the year, said that the government has summed up an overall strategy for the next stage of advancing national security and development.
“To counter the threats to our national security from China’s ‘united front’ tactics, attempts at infiltration and cognitive warfare, we will continue with the reform of our legal framework for national security and expand the national security framework to boost societal resilience and foster unity within,” he said.
Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP
A security official familiar with cross-strait issues on condition of anonymity yesterday said that the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) stipulates that the government can cancel ID cards and household registrations of those who have Chinese ID cards or Chinese passports, but the act has yet to regulate those holding Chinese residence permits.
An amendment to the act was proposed in 2018, which would require those holding Chinese residence permits to inform the government after receiving the documents, and those who fail to do so would be punished in accordance with the law. Those who work in agencies that handle national security affairs were banned from holding Chinese residence permits. However, the amendment was not approved by the Cabinet due to the elections and other factors.
The official yesterday said that Lai has instructed security officials to build a comprehensive national security network to counter China’s intensifying “united front” work and infiltration campaign by reviewing regulations, infrastructure and other aspects.
To bolster national security laws, the government is considering proposing an amendment to punish those who apply for Chinese residence permits or ID cards, the official said, adding that it is also considering amending the administrative order to better manage the travel of those working or living in China.
Residents of Hong Kong and Macau who apply to migrate to or reside in Taiwan would also be under even closer scrutiny, as the two regions are increasingly integrated into China, the official said yesterday, adding that migrants from those areas could become channels to infiltrate Taiwan and become national security loopholes.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
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ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
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