Amendments to the National Security Act (國家安全法) imposing harsher punishments for “economic espionage,” which were passed last year, were put into effect on Monday.
Offenders now face five to 12 years in prison or a fine of NT$5 million to NT$100 million (US$159,908 to US$3.2 million) if they obtain, use or leak trade secrets of the nation’s 22 core key technologies to China, Hong Kong, Macau or foreign hostile forces.
It is interesting that, although the law was amended arguably due to an increasing number of acts of espionage committed on behalf of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in recent years, it continues to stipulate lesser punishments for some forms of treason committed for the PRC.
For example, Article 7 of the act stipulates a prison term of up to seven years for “any person, who intends to endanger national security or social stability and commits an offense under Paragraph 1 of Article 2 [Initiating, funding, hosting, manipulating, directing or developing an organization] for Mainland China.”
The same offense committed for any “area other than Mainland China” is punishable with a prison term of up to 10 years.
This distinction is made because the Republic of China (ROC) fails to recognize the existence of the PRC. That failure might have made sense in the time of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his two successors, but given that Taiwan today has regular exchanges with the PRC, there is no justifiable reason to not recognize the PRC’s existence — nor would doing so conflict with the ROC’s persistent sovereignty claims over the territory administered by the PRC. A government can exist without a state (the exiled government of Tibet is one example), and governments frequently conflict with one another over sovereignty claims.
That the ROC’s law does not recognize the PRC administration or clearly define the statehood of the PRC means that judges in Taiwan have often been reluctant to impose heavy punishments on those convicted in espionage cases involving the PRC.
However, courts might be starting to realize the gravity of the situation facing Taiwan. In October, the High Court sentenced retired air force colonel Liu Sheng-shu (劉聖恕) to 20 years in jail for his role in an espionage network for China. Two other officers received similar sentences in the case.
This is a promising development that could hopefully deter others in the military, which has been plagued by numerous espionage cases in the past few years.
In August, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP) held a press conference calling for stricter punishments for Taiwanese spying for China.
“Chinese espionage is rampant in Taiwan, because people here are confused about their national identity and the punishments for spying are very lenient,” TSP Chairman Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) said.
The ROC political system does not recognize the PRC as a foreign country, or as an enemy, which means the judicial system cannot treat Chinese espionage as foreign aggression, Wang said.
Liu’s 20-year prison term gives hope that judicial leniency might be coming to an end for China’s spies, but the work of judges would be made easier by a legal system that correctly acknowledges the PRC as a foreign aggressor. Taiwanese officials and members of the armed forces should be prohibited from having any contact with people in China.
Similarly, those working on key technologies should not be permitted to have contact with anyone in China. No business deal or exchange of any kind in China is done without the involvement of the Chinese Communist Party.
Taiwan must amend laws to recognize PRC sovereignty and to treat citizens of China, Hong Kong and Macau the same as people from all other foreign countries.
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