The Executive Yuan this month passed 22 amendments aimed at toughening penalties for damaging critical infrastructure, while it also seeks to expand the National Police Agency’s Second Special Police Corps.
The bills, approved by the Cabinet on April 6, have passed a first reading and have been delivered to the legislature’s five committees for review.
Among them is an amendment to the Nuclear Emergency Response Act (核子事故緊急應變法) that would classify attacks on nuclear facilities as physical or virtual, and add penalties based on the type of crime and level of harm done.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
A recently released report by the Legislative Research Bureau on enhancing nuclear threat response and protection called for cross-ministerial and regional risk assessments, as well as drills simulating complex nuclear threats, such as responding to a nuclear plant affected by a tsunami.
The report said the act should be amended to require periodic drills to improve crisis response, adaptation and protection abilities, and also encourage resource integration.
The Cabinet is also planning to expand the Second Special Police Corps to 4,000 officers in an effort to safeguard more than 500 critical infrastructure sites, sources said yesterday.
The Second Special Police Corps is responsible for protecting nuclear power plants and science parks, while the Seventh Special Police Corps is responsible for the safety of financial institutes and reservoirs.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said that if critical infrastructure has been maliciously attacked and damaged, it would cause panic and attract international attention, especially with the presidential election approaching next year.
The bills need to be passed in the first half of this year, and the expansion of the Second Special Police Corps should be achieved by hiring new officers, to avoid increasing the burden on other police units, Lai said.
Protecting critical infrastructure should be supported across party lines, DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said.
The Cabinet should seek to build a consensus in the legislature to ensure the bills pass, Wang said.
To improve the safety of critical infrastructure, the government needs to expand the special police corps, and provide it with better training and equipment, he said.
Institute for National Defense and Security Research postdoctoral researcher Hsu Chih-hsiang (許智翔) said that expanding the Second Special Police Corps and giving them basic military training is part of preparing for a worst-case scenario, and provides more units that have police and basic military capabilities.
With the armed forces next year to require one year of mandatory military service, conscripts would be required to form garrisons, led by volunteer enlisted soldiers, not only for territorial defense, but to protect military and civilian facilities, he said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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