Lawmakers yesterday passed amendments to the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), which stipulate that intelligence personnel who spy for an external force and leak information on national defense, national security or communications security could face life imprisonment.
The act previously stipulated a prison term of at least seven years for personnel spying for an external force, or three to 10 years if leaked intelligence was not in the three categories.
People who have access to sources of intelligence, channels, agencies or personnel, or information pertaining to the upholding of mobile or land-based communications security would face a prison term of 10 years to life if they are found to have leaked classified information as spies for a benign or hostile external force, the new rules say.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The 30-year statute of limitations for such charges was extended to a lifetime.
If they leaked other classified information while spying for an external force, they would face a prison term of seven to 10 years, the rules say.
People who are not engaged in spying activities, but who leak intelligence would face a prison term of at least seven years, while those who illegally access such information would face three to 10 years behind bars, they say.
Those who illegally damage, destroy or conceal intelligence would face a prison term of three to seven years and a fine of NT$2 million (US$65,970), the amended act says.
The minimum penalty for active or retired intelligence personnel who have been recruited by an external force to conduct espionage missions was raised from three to seven years in prison.
The penalty would also apply to personnel found to have attempted to spy for an external force, the amendments say.
Intelligence personnel who exploit rules in the act that allow them to go undercover or establish companies, stores or organizations to leak intelligence would face 1.5 times the punishments and a fine of up to NT$10 million if they are found to have benefited from their infractions, they say.
Intelligence agencies should pin down, study and analyze commercial secrets that are unduly gathered, stolen, leaked or transferred at the instruction of a benign or hostile external force, they say.
Also passed was a supplementary resolution sponsored by Democratic Progressive Party legislators Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), Wu Kuen-yu (吳焜裕) and Chen Man-li (陳曼麗), as well as independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) that grants active intelligence personnel and their family members discounted medical fees at military hospitals.
Intelligence personnel who have accrued seniority and their families should be granted the same healthcare and childrearing benefits that retired military personnel receive, the resolution says.
As intelligence personnel are the most susceptible group to being recruited by external forces, and their lives and the lives of their families are at risk whenever they are abroad, the benefits would make them more willing to stay in their posts longer, the legislators said.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS