The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday issued a notice in a bid to eliminate the budget for the Transitional Justice Commission at a review tomorrow.
“The alleged breach of neutrality seen in the incident involving [former commission deputy chairman] Chang Tien-chin (張天欽) exposed the commission’s positioning as an ‘Eastern Depot,’” the notice said, referring to a Ming Dynasty-era secret police and spy agency.
After the resignation of former commission chairman Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) in October, the body unilaterally appointed commission spokeswoman Yang Tsui (楊翠) as acting chairperson, it said.
The move amounted to abolishing the Legislative Yuan’s power to approve political appointments, and the appointment of Yang, who has a “distinct” political leaning, portended the inauguration of a “political hatchet woman,” it added.
The commission is a “fig leaf” for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) persecution of the KMT and has no reason to exist, it said.
According to a leaked audio recording, Chang said at an informal meeting with five commission staff members in August that the commission was drawing up a lustration law and that he planned to use it against then-KMT New Taipei City mayoral candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜), whom he allegedly called the “most egregious transitional justice case.”
KMT Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲), cochair of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, said the incident was one of the reasons that the DPP suffered losses in the Nov. 24 local elections.
The Executive Yuan should restart the nomination procedure for a new commission chairperson, while the commission, which has lost the public’s trust, should undergo a systematic reshuffle before it submits a budget request, Lin said.
Lawmakers had appointed Huang as the commission’s head, not Yang, so approving the budget proposal when the commission is under the leadership of Yang could contravene the law, he added.
“Whatever Chang might have said or done is wrong. He has assumed political responsibility and stepped down,” DPP caucus director-general Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said.
Yang was appointed acting chairwoman because she is a commissioner, Lee said, adding that she would stay in the post until the legislature approves a new staffing plan for the commission.
“The elections are over. The KMT should stop trying to have a field day by exploiting this issue,” he said.
“The KMT should know when to quit. There are many people who would not approve of their approach” to boycott the budget review, New Power Party (NPP) caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said.
“Should the prisoners of conscience of the White Terror era be left to die with their resentment from wrongful treatment unappeased?” Hsu asked.
The NPP is open to the idea of introducing a lustration law into the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), and the KMT should lobby for an amendment if it believes that the act needs to be improved, he said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS