The legislature yesterday passed a motion to send a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) proposal to demand the resignation of National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) to a second reading without the need for a committee review, weeks after prosecutors detained a former government official on charges linked to espionage.
The motion is pending caucus negotiations, in accordance with the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法).
Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑), who worked for Wu during his tenure as minister of foreign affairs from 2018 to last year, was detained and held incommunicado on April 12 for allegedly spying for China. He was expelled by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on April 13.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The TPP yesterday initiated the motion, adding the charges filed against Ho suggest extensive infiltration under the government’s watch, and that Wu should take responsibility for the official.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has admitted that Ho’s actions might have resulted in significant harm to the national interest, the TPP wrote in the motion.
Wu has since been repeatedly absent from meetings of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, the TPP said.
It accused Wu of falsely invoking national security concerns to avoid being questioned by lawmakers at the meetings.
Wu showed himself to be unqualified for his position by putting himself above the law, ignoring the lawful authority of the legislative branch and harming the nation’s constitutional order, it said.
TPP Chairman and caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday said that the DPP administration was quick to smear opponents as Beijing’s fellow travelers, but the alleged breach proved that the government was the problem.
In response, DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said Lin Yueh-lung (林岳龍) — who is under investigation for alleged involvement in a separate Chinese espionage case — is a prolific KMT staffer, having served as an assistant of KMT lawmakers Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇), Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) and Lin Chien-chi (林倩綺), yet the opposition has not demanded that they take responsibility.
The appropriate response to Chinese infiltration of the government is to work together to enhance security measures, not voting against national security-related bills 482 times, as the opposition has done, she said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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