Allegations that legislative aides have helped intelligence agencies keep tabs on their bosses as part of a political-surveillance operation set off a ferocious outcry in the legislature yesterday.
According to TSU Legislator Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘), at least 56 legislative assistants are helping collect information about lawmakers of all stripes for the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau.
He pressed the ministry to put an immediate end to such practices, saying that the bureau has become a self-appointed "political police."
Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
"I was tipped off that at least 56 legislative aides have been acting as informants for the Investigation Bureau," Chen Chien-ming said during a question-and-answer session in the legislature.
"Their main responsibility is to keep the bureau posted of their bosses' conduct for monthly rewards of NT$20,000 to NT$30,000. Some legislative clerks and reporters also double as informants, and even heavyweight DPP lawmakers are not spared from the watch list," he said.
The TSU lawmaker said informants are taught how to open locked doors and drawers and other intelligence-gathering skills. He said the training, which lasts from seven to 30 days, takes place at the bureau's An-keng base in Taipei.
He also said the bureau spends more than NT$50 million a year to pay such informants, with the payments disguised as consultative and fact-finding expenses.
"I'm not inventing stories," the lawmaker said. "The ministry must halt such operations right away. The bureau has no right to spy on innocent government officials, politicians or private citizens."
In response, the justice minister said that the practice of planting informants is necessary to safeguard national security, but he agreed it should not be used on lawmakers.
"I will put a stop to the operation if the allegations prove to be true," the minister said, insisting that under the DPP administration, the bureau is no longer asked to engage in political surveillance.
The KMT government reportedly kept secret files on political foes, leading industrialists and activists from various groups. Critics say bureau agents continue such practices despite the transfer of power.
Later yesterday, Investigation Bureau Director Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂) stressed that his agency has never authorized any operation to spy on lawmakers or solicited legislative aides to work for it.
Earlier, bureau officials had said the An-keng unit is devoted to improving ties with the lawmaking body.
Unconvinced, several legislators had their offices checked for wire-tapping devices but none were found.
Such spying allegations, however, are nothing new.
Legislative records show that DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) asked Premier Yu Shyi-kun last April if the Investigation Bureau had planted agents in the legislature in the guise of aides.
Chen Chien-ming said that Chiu came under pressure from the Cabinet and DPP headquarters after questioning Yu and had to drop the issue.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents