Opposition party lawmakers have severely harmed national security by cutting military spending, blocking efforts to bolster defense and pandering to Beijing’s interest through China-friendly bills, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
Over the past year, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators introduced numerous bills the DPP believe to be friendly toward China or would weaken Taiwan, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) said.
KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has called for the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) to be annulled to stop prosecution of proxies and collaborators of Beijing, while KMT legislators Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) and Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) are seeking to allow retired military officials to visit China and that those who participate in Chinese “united front” events to not face penalties, Wu said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Opposition party lawmakers are continuing on a similar path this year, slashing NT$150 billion (US$4.95 billion) earmarked for the Cabinet’s plan to strengthen national defense resilience, DPP spokeswoman Han Ying (韓瑩) said.
The cuts would embolden China to continue its military intrusions into around Taiwan, Wu said.
The KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party have worked to concentrate power in the legislature at expense of other government branches, by obstructing the Constitutional Court, creating political turmoil, blocking DPP bills related to defense and national security 377 times against, and slashing funding for the military and weapon upgrading, Han said.
“Now we are dealing with negotiations on tariffs and international trade, while the KMT is pushing to set up free-trade zones for outlying islands close to China’s coast, which would open up investments from China, providing a conduit for origin fraud of Chinese export goods,” she said.
“It would destroy the excellent reputation built up over the decades for made in Taiwan products and erode Taiwan’s standing in trade negotiations,” she added.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
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.
RSS