The legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee yesterday passed a motion banning recording devices and phones at confidential meetings, with provisions that compel legislators to submit to searches.
The rule change came amid a controversy centered on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), who has been accused of leaking secrets connected to the Indigenous Defense Submarine program gleaned during confidential meetings.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers made an impromptu motion to change the committee’s rules during yesterday’s meeting.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Although KMT lawmakers raised verbal objections to the motion, it passed the committee’s review unanimously without a vote.
The amended rules stipulate that no electronic or recording devices, including smart watches and bracelets, legislature-issued personal phones and cameras, are allowed on lawmakers, officials and staffers attending confidential meetings of the committee.
Participants are not allowed to keep handwritten notes and must sign a non-disclosure form prior to taking their place in confidential meetings, while guards with detectors would be in place to ensure compliance, the amendments say.
KMT Legislator Charles Chen (陳以信) expressed anger at the motion, saying that the DPP had “ambushed” the opposition by neglecting to forward a copy of the proposal to the committee’s KMT members.
Rules to protect confidential information are already available in the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said, adding that it was inappropriate to use an impromptu motion to change the committee’s internal rules.
The proposal should have included a rule against “loudmouth” lawmakers giving away sensitive defense information on social media, Chen said, before accusing DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) of leaking details about the submarine program on Facebook.
The KMT had accused Wang of compromising national secrets by disclosing the shape of the submarine’s rudder.
The statement triggered a spat between Wang and Chen that ended with the committee’s DPP members urging the former to exercise restraint.
The KMT caucus called on Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) to convene negotiations to discuss passing legislature-wide rules to protect national secrets in all committees with access to classified information.
The party had submitted its proposal to You and asked that negotiations should start no later than Tuesday next week, KMT caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) told a news conference.
The KMT’s proposal is similar to rule changes passed by the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, with an additional proviso that “involved personnel may not disclose classified information or its content on their personal Facebook account.”
Chen said that the Facebook provision was drafted specifically for Wang.
Wang fired back at the KMT during an interpellation with the Ministry of the National Defense.
Following a request from Wang to clarify whether disclosing the submarine’s rudder shape breached national security, Vice Admiral Shao Wei-yang (邵維揚) said the mechanism’s dimensions and propeller blade angle are classified, but not its shape.
Shao also corroborated Wang’s claim that Ma was asked to stop using her government-issued phone during one classified briefing.
Shao was an eyewitness to the incident and asked Wang to invoke his authority as committee convener to stop Ma from using the phone, Wang told lawmakers.
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