Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Code is not sufficient to punish defectors

Wu Ching-chin 吳景欽

A soldier who went missing from Kinmen County on Thursday last week has been confirmed to be in China. It has not been determined why the soldier swam there, but the situation does raise the question of criminal liability.

A serving member of the military who surrenders to an enemy is punishable under Article 24 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法) and liable to imprisonment of no less than 10 years, life imprisonment or the death penalty, depending on the severity of the crime.

Open political archives to public

Lin Hai-sheng 林海生

The issue of declassifying political files has recently become the subject of heated debate. Some civic organizations have been calling for legislative amendments, while Control Yuan reports have uncovered problems in the National Security Bureau’s confidential files.

When the Political Archives Act (政治檔案條例) was enacted in 2019, it was already apparent that it would run into problems. For years, national security and intelligence agencies have taken advantage of the law to keep documents under wraps when it is in their best interests to do so.

Uniting against Chinese aggression

Taipei Times Editorials

China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, has given Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a precedent-breaking third term in office. It also announced a national defense budget of 1.56 trillion yuan (US$226.6 billion) for this year, 7.2 percent more than last year. Taiwan should take this as reason to be more determined in the face of its authoritarian neighbor.

While calling for “peaceful unification,” China has increased its military budget by at least 6.6 percent every year for the past three decades, which has been perceived as being aimed at preparing for the annexation of Taiwan and domination of the Western Pacific amid a growing rivalry with the US.

Grumbling troops show military lacks power

Chao Hsin-peng 趙興鵬

A resident of Juguang Township (莒光) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) recently took some photos of messages written in the sand on a beach.

The two sentences read: “The Matsu Defense Command kitchen has no meat, so hungry soldiers can only eat instant noodles and canned food,” and “The Matsu Defense Command kitchen’s main course is plain rice.”

This information inspired some media to launch a tirade without looking into the matter. With calm consideration, this SOS message can lead to two conclusions.

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