Plans are under way to strengthen legal statutes and upgrade measures related to national security, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.
President William Lai (賴清德) pointed out security needs and outlined priorities during his first high-level national security meeting on Friday, stressing the need for reform and improvement in nationwide protective networks, Wu said.
As parties had proposed more than 10 legislation packages and amendments to the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), the National Security Act (國家安全法), the Cyber Security Management Act (資通安全管理法) and laws governing cross-strait relations and statutes during the last legislative session, now is the time for the blue and green political camps to deliberate on national security details, “because Taiwan’s national security should not be divided by affiliations,” Wu said.
Photo: Taipei Times
The meeting on Friday reached an agreement on three main items: establishing a security network covering the whole nation, enhancing density of coverage for all jurisdictions and more severe punishments for those who contravene security laws.
DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) said China has used many tactics to infiltrate Taiwan, and conduct espionage and other covert operations, but the situation has become more complicated, as it is now more difficult to track Chinese money flow channels due to China-controlled supply chains in high-tech and other industrial sectors.
“So we must reassess all the law statutes governing cybersecurity and data protection, and patch up the loopholes,” she said.
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said the advancement of news technologies has linked the world into vast digital networks, so it is difficult to monitor international money flow.
“It is forbidden by law to accept funds coming from the Chinese Communist Party, or Chinese military sources or leadership. However, when those are scattered as donations on YouTube, we have no way to check and we have no control over it,” Wang said.
DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) said the changes to the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法) are needed to prevent that flow of money and collaboration with China, but getting the agreement of opposition parties would be hard.
“We have proposed to amend the offenses against the nation’s external security, because too many people in Taiwan are doing business, taking visits and interacting with people in China. Expanding the definition is needed to prosecute those who have betrayed or sold out Taiwan,” he said, expressing concern over the issue of lawmakers visiting China.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS