Opposition legislators yesterday said that the six government officials in Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) delegation to China for this year’s Shanghai Cross-Strait Economic and Cultural Forums are violating administrative neutrality.
At the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said that the officials were incapable of distinguishing between party loyalty and their duty to the nation, accusing them of defying Article 8 of the Public Servants’ Administrative Neutrality Act (公務人員行政中立法).
Article 8 stipulates that public servants must not use powers, opportunities or methods granted by their office to aid or benefit political parties or other political groups of political candidates, nor accede to their requests, accept bribes in any form or donate in their interests.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said at the committee meeting that the officials had not visited China using public funds because their travel was subsidized by the KMT think tank the National Policy Foundation.
In response to DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi’s (李俊俋) accusation that the six officials were violating the act, Minister of Civil Service Chang Che-shen (張哲琛) said that he agreed such acts were inappropriate.
Chang promised DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) that should violations be proven, the officials would be held accountable by the Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Functionaries.
Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) alleged that the officials, despite traveling to China on leave, were tasked by their respective offices to carry out official talks, which contravenes the Ministry of the Interior’s Permit Regulations Governing the Entry into the Mainland Area by Civil Servants and other Personnel with Special Identities in the Taiwan Area (公務員及特定身分人員進入大陸地區注意事項).
The regulations stipulate that entry into China on non-official matters prohibits civil servants from carrying out activities related to their offices.
However, National Immigration Agency Director-General Mo Tien-hu (莫天虎) said that civil servants above the 11th pay grade who are not privy to any classified information simply need the approval of their respective offices to bypass such restrictions.
The six officials include the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ (MOEA) Small And Medium-Sized Enterprise Administration Director Yeh Yun-lung (葉雲龍), MOEA Intellectual Property Office Director-General Wang Mei-hua (王美花), Ministry of Education Youth Development Administration Director-General Lo Ching-shui (羅清水), Mainland Affairs Council Cultural and Educational Affairs Director Hua Shih-chieh (華士傑), Ministry of Culture Bureau Of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development Director Wang Chih-cheng (王志錚) and Council of Agriculture Agriculture and Food Agency Director Li Tsang-lang (李蒼郎).
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS