Three bills designed to strengthen national security have been listed by the Executive Yuan as priority bills for the next legislative session, which is scheduled to begin later this month.
Sources with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity, said that the priority bills include an amendment 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) to increase penalties for Chinese nationals, organizations or institutions that invest in Taiwan under the guise of a foreign investor from another nation.
Article 73 of the act bars any person on entity in China, or any company it invests in any third area, from any investment activity in Taiwan, unless permitted by the authorities.
Those who contravene the law are liable for a fine ranging from NT$120,000 to NT$600,000 (US$3,899 to US$19,496).
The proposed amendment would raise the maximum fine to NT$25 million.
The second priority bill, another amendment to the same act, would bar retired generals, directors of intelligence agencies, and ministers and deputy ministers of agencies with access to sensitive security information from attending political activities hosted by senior Chinese officials, paying tribute to the flag or political symbols of China, or behaving in ways that damage Taiwan’s dignity, for 15 years after their retirement.
Those who contravene the restriction would risk losing part of or their entire pension.
The bill was shelved during the previous legislative session as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers struggled to pass a pension reform bill for retired military personnel.
The Executive Yuan would work to ensure that it clears the legislative floor in the new legislative session, the sources said.
The third priority bill contains proposed amendments to the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) that would increase the number of years that retired military brass are banned from traveling to China from one to three years to three to six years.
The bill passed its first reading in March.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) is scheduled to have a lunch meeting with DPP lawmakers on Friday to discuss the Cabinet’s priority bills with the party’s caucus.
Some DPP lawmakers have proposed other draft amendments to strengthen national security.
One, submitted by Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and others, would amend Article 5-2 of the National Security Act (國家安全法) so that retired officials could be stripped of their pensions if they are convicted of espionage.
They would also be required to return any pension funds they received during the time the espionage was committed.
However, the Executive Yuan is still soliciting the opinions of national security agencies before it makes a decision on whether to earmark that proposed amendment as one of its priority bills, the sources said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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