Amid allegations that prominent electronics manufacturer Young Fast Optoelectronics had been using Chinese labor, opposition lawmakers yesterday urged the government to crack down on companies using Chinese labor in Taiwan under false pretenses.
Permits for Young Fast’s workers were reportedly issued after the company said that the workers would be in Taiwan for professional training.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) said the case could be the tip of the iceberg, adding that the government “owed the public an answer.”
“Just how many more cases of companies illegally using Chinese workers under the cover of -professional exchanges will we find?” she asked in the legislature, adding that they were “taking jobs” away from Taiwanese workers.
“After all, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that he would definitely not allow workers from China to find jobs in Taiwan,” DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said, referring to an election pledge Ma made in 2008.
According to the latest statistics from the National Immigration Agency (NIA), the number of -professional exchanges from China has doubled since 2008. About 1,000 so-called professionals from China came to Taiwan in the first seven months of this year, compared with a total of 1,301 last year.
The Chinese-language Next Magazine reported yesterday that the practice was especially widespread among major electronics manufacturers that have a strong commercial presence in China. The magazine wrote that Kaohsiung-based Advanced Semiconductor Engineering had 366 Chinese workers visit Taiwan last year. Since 2008, 443 Chinese workers from AU Optronics also took part in the program.
While the Act Governing Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) forbids Chinese citizens from working in Taiwan, companies that fulfill certain criteria are allowed to apply in advance for teams of employees to visit Taiwan for professional development.
Visits are limited to four months per year and the participants are prohibited from engaging in “normal working behavior.”
Liao Wei-jen (廖為仁), the deputy director of the Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training at the Council of Labor Affairs, said violators would be fined between NT$200,000 (US$6,475) and NT$1 million and their Chinese workers would be deported.
He said the regulations meant the government “definitely has not opened up” to workers from China.
However, Chang Chi (張琪), deputy director-general at the NIA, the agency responsible for policing the program, admitted that spot checks were not conducted because of broad, and varying, definitions of what work entails. Instead, the NIA first conducts background checks on applicants. He added that the limited time Chinese workers were allowed to visit Taiwan along with the high cost of the program were “more than enough” to deter potential violations.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and