President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Wednesday offered a public apology, following media reports of a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member being affiliated with an organized crime group, and said that the party would tighten its review mechanism to screen out unqualified people.
“In recent days, reports on gang activities and crime have been linked to the DPP’s internal management of party membership. These have led to criticism and have tarnished our party’s image,” said Tsai, who is also the DPP chairperson, at the party’s headquarters in Taipei.
“The DPP failed to fully implement the party’s clause on prohibiting gang-affiliated people from becoming a party member, which has led to controversies and disappointed our supporters. I apologize for this,” she added.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Tsai was referring to the case involving Chao Ying-kuang (趙映光), convener of the DPP Taipei chapter’s review committee, who resigned last week, following reports about his son Chao Chieh-yu (趙介佑), who is under investigation for racketeering, assault and kidnapping related to an organized crime group based in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投).
The DPP in 2013 added a clause to its charter that says it will not allow people to apply for party membership if they are convicted of breaching the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例), the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), or the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例).
“In the coming days, the DPP will institute a new system for background checks, and check court ruling records and other open information platforms. Regular checks will be conducted on new members, and party candidates running in elections, and will assess their performance when they are elected to public office. These will also remove those found to be affiliated with organized crime groups,” Tsai said.
The party will make use of an artificial intelligence (AI) information system to prevent members of organized crime groups from joining the party, DPP secretary-general Lin Hsi-yao (林錫耀) said.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Ann Kao (高虹安), known for her specialty in digital technology, yesterday praised the DPP for its efforts, but added that technology alone would not help the party deal with the problem of infiltration by organized crime.
“AI is mainly utilized to analyze large amounts of data and to extract useful information. Making a model requires a supply of materials and markers from which patterns and definitions could be derived,” she wrote on Facebook.
“Introducing AI might help with the technical issues involved in the evaluation [of party members], but a political party must depend on the innate wisdom of humans for its core values and standards of conduct,” she said.
“Politics is the work of human beings governing other human beings,” Kao said.
“The DPP has had the rule to exclude gang members for a very long time; the rule failed because its users did not put their minds to implement it,” she said.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) yesterday apologized after the suicide of a civil servant earlier this month and announced that a supervisor accused of workplace bullying would be demoted. On Nov. 4, a 39-year-old information analyst at the Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) northern branch, which covers greater Taipei and Keelung, as well as Yilan, Lienchiang and Kinmen counties, was found dead in their office. WDA northern branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容), who has been accused of involvement in workplace bullying, would be demoted to a nonsupervisory position, Ho told a news conference in Taipei. WDA Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said he would
RSS