Affairs pertaining to the extradition of suspects who flee across the Taiwan Strait, as well as cross-strait Internet hacker attacks, are to be discussed during the next round of cross-strait talks, a Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official said on Monday.
The two issues will be included on the agenda of the third round of talks between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) tentatively scheduled for next month, MAC Vice Chairman Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had said on Monday that the country was in the process of signing extradition treaties with Washington and Beijing in light of the difficulties experienced in extraditing suspects in the absence of such agreements.
Liu said he expected SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) to sign an agreement on joint efforts to combat crime, setting the stage for closer cooperation between the two sides on crime fighting and prevention.
He added that law enforcement authorities from Taiwan and China have repatriated fugitives or convicts from one side to the other under the Kinmen Agreement, signed by the Red Cross societies of Taiwan and China in 1990.
However, the Kinmen Agreement allows only for repatriation, not extradition, Liu said.
He said judicial officials from the two sides have expressed hope that the content and stipulations of the Kinmen Agreement could be upgraded and expanded to include extradition operations, judicial cooperation and exchanges of intelligence and evidence.
He added that issues concerning Internet hacking and telecommunications fraud would be discussed in the upcoming Chiang-Chen talks, citing a recent New York Times report that quoted Canadian researchers as saying that a massive global computer spy network known as GhostNet, based in China, had compromised more than 1,295 computers in 103 countries.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
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