Lawmakers across party lines yesterday vowed to block a draft bill that seeks to allow National Security Bureau (NSB) personnel to detain and search anyone who might endanger the safety of an incumbent or retired president when protecting the current or former national leader.
When asked for comment, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) expressed opposition to the NSB-initiated proposal.
“This should never be allowed. Our caucus will definitely kill the bill,” Chang said.
The draft proposal, which had yet to be put to a preliminary review, would allow the current or former president’s NSB bodyguards to stop and search any person or vehicle if the person were considered by the NSB guards to be an “obvious” threat to the safety of an incumbent or retired president.
The draft proposal would also authorize the NSB officials to detain the person at a certain location for a maximum of three hours.
Chang said the draft bill might constitute a violation of human rights and that it was impossible for the KMT caucus to sacrifice human rights for the sake of the legislation.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) also had reservations regarding the proposal, saying that many legislators had voiced their opposition to it.
He urged all lawmakers to deliberate over how the NSB could ensure human rights while maintaining public order and protecting the current or retired president.
When approached by reporters in the legislature, Chen Ping-lin (陳炳林), director of the NSB’s Law and Regulation Committee, defended the draft bill, saying that the proposal was meant to limit rather than expand the power of NSB officials.
Chen said NSB officials would only enjoy the authority stipulated in the proposal under emergent circumstances or when the security of the incumbent or former president was breached.
Chang Kan-ping (張勘平), deputy director of the NSB’s secret service center, said the bill would not empower the NSB to detain anyone, adding that if the bill were passed, the NSB would hand over any personnel suspected of threatening the safety of the incumbent or retired president to the police.
Meanwhile, the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee yesterday decided to slash NT$10 million (US$312,500) from the NSB’s annual budget for next year as punishment for the incident that saw China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) manhandled by protesters in Tainan last week.
Domestic Intelligence Department Director Lin Hui-yang (林惠陽) attended yesterday’s meeting on behalf of the NSB.
In response to the decision to cut the NSB’s budget, Lin said that the incident happened because Zhang decided to visit the Confucius Temple, the site of the incident, on his own rather than staying with his delegation.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RSS