About one dozen Chinese ID card applications have been discovered in New Taipei City, Taichung, Yunlin County and Kaohsiung, and have already been transferred to the Ministry of the Interior, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday.
The investigations came after a video by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) alleged that up to 200,000 Taiwanese had obtained Chinese ID cards in the past decade, which they filed for while in Taiwan.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The bureau is aware of cases of Taiwanese applying for Chinese IDs and has received a large amount of intelligence that must be verified before being referred to the judicial authorities, Tsai told lawmakers at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
Most cases involve Taiwanese citizens and those who encouraged others to apply for Chinese ID cards online might face criminal charges, Tsai added.
The claim that 200,000 Taiwanese already possess Chinese ID cards is exaggerated, and only about a dozen cases have been found by the NSB so far, with a few more identified by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, he added.
Separately, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said 12 people are under investigation for having Chinese ID cards, one of whom has already had their household registration revoked, while another has been notified, but the process might be slightly delayed due to mail delivery issues.
The identity of the person whose registration has been revoked cannot be revealed due to personal data protection laws, Liu added.
In other news, a lieutenant surnamed Lin (林) of the 53rd Army Engineer Group’s Support Battalion on Dec. 19 last year showed Pa’s “China’s ‘united front’ documentary” during a broadcast of Juguang Garden (莒光園地).
Lin also told soldiers that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party were connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
Asked whether the lieutenant’s actions, and bringing of societal and political ideologies into the military was appropriate, Tsai said that the military must remain politically neutral in accordance with the National Defense Act (國防法).
Tsai said he would need to further understand the case before being able to comment.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
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,
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
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
RSS