A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator yesterday said he has submitted a bill that would stipulate penalties for certain espionage-related activities.
The National Security Act (國家安全法) does not stipulate penalties for participating in organizational activities on behalf of a foreign power, or the recruitment of people for such activities, DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said.
The bill would apply in situations such as the case of former army colonel Hsiang Te-en (向德恩) who was last year sentenced to seven years and six months in prison by the Kaohsiung District Court for accepting NT$560,000 in bribes from Chinese sources to work as a spy, Wang said.
Photo: Reuters
Hsiang had also signed a letter of surrender with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), posing in a photograph with the document in military attire and pledging assistance, to the best of his abilities, in the event of an invasion.
Hsiang received a relatively lenient sentence because current laws do not stipulate penalties for contraventions such as pledging allegiance to an enemy and cooperating with an enemy in “united front” operations, Wang said.
“Hsiang’s case has ignited concerns at all levels about how the government should respond to Chinese infiltration,” he said.
In February last year, the Ministry of Justice invited the National Security Bureau, the Mainland Affairs Council, the Investigation Bureau and local prosecutors’ offices to discuss the matter, he said.
“Most of the officials who attended the discussion expressed their belief that to maintain national security, it must be illegal for even former military personnel to pledge allegiance to the CCP,” he said.
Article 2 of the National Security Act only prohibits “initiating, funding, hosting, manipulating, directing or developing an organization” for hostile foreign forces.
The bill would add participating in organizational activities to the act, he said.
The article also stipulates that those found “disclosing, delivering or transmitting confidential documents” may be sentenced to one to seven years imprisonment, while those found “collecting confidential documents” through espionage may be sentenced to between six months and five years.
The amendment would increase those sentences, because such acts could threaten the safety of national security personnel or the execution of their missions, or could result in the arrest of intelligence personnel, confiscation of property or destruction of facilities, which would harm national interests, he said.
The amendments would apply to military personnel or civil servants who use their authority to develop organizations on behalf of hostile foreign forces, he said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS