A proposal to bolster laws against espionage passed its third reading in the legislature yesterday.
The amendment would see more severe punishments for military personnel convicted of espionage and breaches of national security, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers called for tougher restrictions on retired high-ranking military officers visiting China for political events.
The “spy bill” intends to strip active-service personnel convicted of espionage, leaking state secrets, or other major crimes punishable by a minimum of seven years in prison, of their government pension and other retirement benefits.
DPP legislators Wang Ding-yu (王定宇), Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) and Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) led the initiative, which mainly focused on amendments to the Act of Military Service for Officers and Noncommissioned Officers of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍軍官士官服務條例).
“This bill will remove loopholes in the law and bolster punishments for those convicted of spying for China or leaking military secrets,” Wang said. “In the past, such people could keep their retirement benefits, but we intend to close those loopholes.”
Liu said there has been an increase in military officials attending meetings and political programs in China in recent years.
“In some cases, military officers were recruited and enticed by money or other means to become spies for China,” Liu said. “This bill aims to protect our nation against enemy state espionage activities and to maintain a fair system for other retirees.”
To achieve this, “convicted offenders should be stripped of their government pension,” Liu said.
“We had to address the absurd situation in which military officials were receiving pensions from the government while being paid by the Chinese government to spy and hand over classified information,” Cheng said. “The passage of the amendments on the third reading upholds the principle of fairness and justice.”
“All military personnel should be reminded of the law and serve the nation with honor and loyalty,” Cheng said.
The bill specifically addresses convictions of military personnel while in active service. For cases involving retired military personnel, a draft amendment of the National Security Act (國家安全法) went through a first reading on Monday.
The National Security Act amendments set out similar conditions to strip benefits from retired military personnel upon conviction for espionage or leaking state secrets with a minimum sentence of seven years.
For those sentenced to fewer than seven years in prison, benefits are to be reduced proportionally.
In related developments, a group of DPP lawmakers launched an effort to impose stricter scrutiny of the movement of former military officers.
They proposed that the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) be changed to include lieutenant generals and generals under regulations barring them from visiting China to engage in political activities.
DPP Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said that 37 retired high-ranking military officials who attended a political address by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing had prompted the proposed rule changes.
“The actions of these generals can be construed as selling out the nation because they have good knowledge of Taiwan’s military setup and deployment plans, but they have no understanding of loyalty to the nation or safeguarding national security. Their attendance at the political program in China has angered Taiwanese,” Chiu said.
He said that the proposed rules would require former military personnel with the ranks of major general or higher to have travel plans to China approved, with those found in breach of the law to be deprived of pensions.
The conditions are being considered for application to all high-ranking government officials, Chiu said.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS