Justin Lin (林毅夫), who defected to China in 1979 and currently works as a vice president at the World Bank, would be arrested and face charges of treason if he came back to Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday.
At a legislative meeting on March 7, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) urged the government to allow Lin to return to Taiwan on humanitarian grounds. Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said at the time that while the council did not oppose Taiwanese who have lived in China for a long period of time returning to the country to visit family, Lin’s case was a military matter and the council respected the ministry’s position.
Lin’s wife, Chen Yun-ying (陳雲英), said in Beijing on Saturday that Lin was scheduled to leave his post at the World Bank in June and his greatest wish after retirement was to come back to Taiwan.
Photo: Liu Jin, AFP
Chen, who serves as a member of China’s National People’s Congress, said she and her husband had long dreamed of returning to Taiwan.
Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu (高華柱) told the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee meeting yesterday that Lin had committed treason under military law and was “still committing the crime.”
Lin would be arrested immediately and face military prosecution upon entering Taiwan, Kao added.
Lin defected to China in 1979 when he was serving as an army captain on the outlying island of Kinmen. After serving as an economist in Beijing, he became a vice president and chief economist at the World Bank.
In May 2002, Lin filed an application from Beijing to return to Taiwan to attend his father’s funeral. Taiwanese authorities approved his application, but warned that he could face legal consequences if he returned. Lin decided not to risk detention and did not attend his father’s funeral.
Lin’s defection would be subject to a death sentence, life sentence or imprisonment for more than 10 years according to the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said.
Hsu said the ministry listed the former company commander as “missing” in 1979 when he defected and paid his family compensation of NT$470,000.
Lin’s family never returned the compensation and his case was not classified as a defection until Nov. 8, 2002, by the Military High Court, Hsu said. That means the 30-year statute of limitation on his case has not expired.
Allowing the Lin family to return would be seen as support for China’s “united front” strategy and caving in to pressure from Beijing in the guise of a “humanitarian” cause, TSU Legislator Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) said.
The ministry tried to have Lin extradited after Taiwan and China signed an agreement on judicial assistance, but the request was rejected by Beijing, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌) said.
China blatantly rejected Taiwan’s request to extradite four defectors: Lin, former army Lieutenant Wang Yi-hung (王宜宏) and two fighter pilots, Huang Chih-cheng (黃植誠) and Lin Hsien-shun (林賢順), Hsueh said.
Hsueh added that the ministry was suspected of a cover-up in Lin’s case, as it had initially assessed that the case was a defection.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS