Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Prevent spying, boost morale

Taipei Times Editorial

The High Court’s Kaohsiung branch on Wednesday last week sentenced a retired air force colonel to 20 years in prison for running espionage activities for China and recruiting active-duty military officers for a spy network in Taiwan.

Although such offenses have been drawing severe penalties in the past few years, last week’s case once again laid bare that the nation is vulnerable and the law has loopholes. It is of paramount importance that military morale and discipline are restored.

The retired colonel, surnamed Liu (劉), in 2013 moved to China for business after retiring from the military. He was paid to infiltrate Taiwan’s military, recruit active-duty personnel and procure intelligence for Beijing, such as details of military planes and ships, prosecutors said.

TPP plan to select China-born candidate a risk: DPP

Taipei Times

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday said that if the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) were to select a China-born legislative candidate it would pose national security concerns, while the TPP accused the ruling party of employing “double standards.”

The TPP has come under fire for its rumored selection of Taiwan New Residents Development Association chairwoman Xu Chunying (徐春鶯), the wife of a Taiwanese man and an advocate for foreign-born spouses, for its list of legislator-at-large nominees.

The TPP has yet to confirm or deny the selection of Xu, which was first reported by Mirror Media on Thursday last week.

US military buys Japanese seafood to counter China ban

Taipei Times

The US has started bulk buying Japanese seafood to supply its military there in response to a ban China imposed after Tokyo released treated water from its crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant into the sea.

Unveiling the initiative in an interview yesterday, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Washington should also look more broadly into how it could help offset China’s ban that he said was part of its “economic wars.”

China, which had been the biggest buyer of Japanese seafood, says its ban is due to food safety fears.

Elections are not a clowning spectacle

Chang Kuo-tsai 張國財

We are now in the countdown to next year’s presidential election, which is to be held on Jan. 13. The candidates are striving to make their voices heard and jockeying for a lead position in opinion polls to avoid being dumped by tactical voters, and that is all fine as long as they stick to legitimate methods rather than anything too ugly.

While Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the candidate nominated by the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has been proposing his political standpoints one by one, the two opposition party nominees — New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) — have not been using policy proposals as their main talking points.

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