Deputy Minister of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) yesterday likened Taiwan’s situation to that of Ukraine before the Russian invasion that started in February 2022.
“The nation is facing an unprecedented national threat. It is the worst we have experienced since 1949,” Ma said at a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army last month conducted war games, simulating a full-scale invasion of Taiwan,” he said.
Photo: Lee Wen-hsin, Taipei Times
In addition to war games, Beijing is also conducting cyberwarfare and cognitive warfare campaigns against Taiwan, he said.
“The situation Taiwan has been in since last year resembles the conditions before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” he said.
Legislators at the committee reviewed proposed amendment bills to the National Security Act (國家安全法).
“The Chinese Communist Party regime is taking such actions with the goals of invading Taiwan and destroying the Republic of China,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said.
“China has engaged in united front propaganda and disinformation campaigns to infiltrate into every level of Taiwanese society to undermine social stability and threaten Taiwan’s national security,” Liang said.
According to National Security Bureau data, public prosecutors in 2024 indicted 64 people in suspected China-related espionage cases, which is about three times the number in 2021, he added.
Liang said there are five main Chinese infiltration channels: organized crime groups, unregistered lenders, shell company-owned businesses, temples and non-governmental organizations.
“Although the government in 2020 began amending armed forces and national security-related laws, persistent exposure of espionage cases shows that existing laws are not enough to deter spying for China, he added.
“Courts interpret existing laws differently, so their amendments should be more effective and comprehensive,” Liang said.
Some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators questioned whether the proposed amendments hand the Cabinet authority to arbitrarily restrict people’s freedom of expression and harm their rights.
When reviewing the amendment bills at the committee, KMT legislators questioned that it was for the Cabinet and the Executive branch to expand their authority, in restricting freedom of expression and interfering into rights of citizens.
Ma said that public discourse on news and political events would not be affected by the proposed amendments.
The Cabinet drafted the bill on Dec. 18 last year, which offers to stipulate that any person who, via writing, or using images or audiovisual content, condones a foreign state’s use of violence to end the nation’s sovereignty could be fined up to NT$1 million (US$31,725).
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