The Ministry of the Interior should disclose records on elected officials’ and civil servants’ trips to China to allow transparency and accountability, Taiwan Statebuilding Party Chairman Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) said yesterday
Releasing the records would enable citizens to scrutinize the activities of their representatives during visits to China, to deter collusion and “gray zone” tactics from eroding Taiwan’s democracy, Wang said.
“Since President William Lai (賴清德) has designated China as a ‘foreign hostile force,’ our government must implement enhanced national security regulations,” he said.
Photo: Taipei Times
The ministry should disclose trips to China by elected officials and civil servants, releasing itineraries and records at regular intervals, he said.
The Executive Yuan last week approved amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) that would require legislators, city and county councilors, and other elected representatives to file reports and disclose trips to China in which they met with Chinese government or Chinese Communist Party officials, or visited military sites.
The Taiwan Statebuilding Party endorses the Cabinet’s efforts to enhance transparency on these trips to protect national security, Wang said.
However, with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party holding a majority in the legislature, it is not possible to pass the amendments, as the opposition has repeatedly rejected legislation related to national security, he said.
“While we expect the opposition parties to impede the amendments, the Cabinet can still exercise its executive power,” Wang said.
Elected officials serve the public, and legislators especially have the power to review and approve the government’s budget, making strict public oversight essential, he said.
People expect their elected officials to be held to higher standards, and officials should not be able to hide behind the excuse of “personal privacy” to evade public scrutiny of their trips to China, he said.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS