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Ma ignoring Chinese
hostility: TSU chairman
ESPIONAGE: Huang Kun-huei slammed Ma Ying-jeou’s
administration for its plan to allow a Chinese representative office in Taiwan,
saying it would sanction Chinese spying
By Su Yung-yao, Lee Yu-hsin and Jake Chung / Staff reporters,
with staff writer
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九)
administration is completely ignoring the hostility China has displayed toward
Taiwan and its ultimate purpose to bring Taiwan into its fold by offering
immunity and privileges to a planned representative office for China’s
Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) in Taiwan, Taiwan
Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said yesterday.
The move is tantamount to opening the door to Chinese spies and helping China
take over Taiwan, he added.
The Cabinet on Thursday approved a draft bill governing the establishment of
representative offices on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Under the bill, the ARATS branches in Taiwan and staff at the offices would be
granted certain special rights to allow them to carry out their duties without
legal interference.
Included in the special rights are provisions that no one can enter the branches
without the permission of those offices; their property and assets would be
immune from search, confiscation or expropriation; and documents and archives
would be inviolable. The bill stipulates that Chinese staff at the ARATS offices
in Taiwan would enjoy immunity from Taiwan’s jurisdiction in civil and criminal
matters in the exercise of their duties, and would have certain tax exemptions
and other privileges to be decided at the discretion of the Cabinet.
Huang, who formerly served as Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) minister, said that
even the US, a close friend of Taiwan, does not give judicial immunity to
Taiwanese diplomats, “and yet the Ma government is giving China such privileges,
which could constitute a substantial threat to Taiwan’s national security.”
Huang questioned the use of setting up such offices, saying that as the Taiwan
External Trade Development Council, as well as tourism agencies, already have
offices in China, he saw no legitimate reason to set up another governmental
office.
It is “international common knowledge” that Chinese embassy officials are tasked
with multiple jobs, one of which is espionage, he said.
“It is surprising the Ma administration would allow such privileges to the
Chinese despite this knowledge. The staff sent to Taiwan may attempt to gather
sensitive information during their stay,” he said.
Taiwan is a country governed by the rule of law, but China is a country governed
by the word of men, Huang said.
To give Chinese officials in Taiwan judicial immunity is to sanction illegal
activities during their stay in Taiwan, Huang added, calling for the labor and
financial sectors to be on the alert as the Chinese government often supports
corporate espionage to steal intellectual property or corporate secrets.
Democratic Progressive Party Policy Research Committee Executive Director Joseph
Wu (吳釗燮), who also once served as MAC minister, said that for such offices to be
set up, three prerequisites must be met: first, the offices cannot evolve into
the equivalent of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; second, the office’s mandate must be
clearly defined; third, the offices should adhere to international diplomatic
regulations.
Taiwan does not need a platform for China’s “united front” (統戰) tactics, he
said.
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