DPP lawmaker calls for changes to security law
By Fan Wei-li and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) yesterday said that he plans to propose amendments to the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and the National Security Act (國家安全法) to increase penalties for transnational repression and emerging forms of crime allegedly directed or funded by Beijing.
The law does not adequately cover some acts of cross-border repression carried out at the direction of or with funding from hostile foreign forces, Wang said.
The proposed amendments would target new forms of crime, including laundering money through online donations to streamers and online harassment carried out by public relations firms, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu is pictured in an undated photograph.
Photo: Taipei Times
The Anti-Infiltration Act focuses on election-related offenses, including voting, elections, recalls and referendums, as well as breaches of social order and laws governing assemblies and marches allegedly committed at the behest of hostile foreign forces, he said.
However, it does not adequately cover newer forms of cross-border repression enabled by technology and online platforms, Wang said.
The planned amendments would establish disclosure requirements for online financial transactions and give authorities the legal power needed to investigate suspected offenses, he said.
They would also stiffen penalties and strengthen investigative powers for threats, cyberbullying and online humiliation carried out by domestic Internet companies or online marketing firms acting under the direction of or receiving funding from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chinese government or Chinese military bodies, he said.
The law as it is either imposes insufficient penalties or fails to account for the effects such activities could have on Taiwan’s domestic affairs, Wang said.
The proposed amendments were nearing the end of the cosigning process and would be submitted soon, he said.
He called on lawmakers across party lines to support the changes to protect the public from harassment, intimidation and threats from hostile foreign forces.
Political parties can compete as fiercely as they like, but the public’s right to hold different political views must be protected, he said.
People can criticize the views of others, but should not attack them at the behest of or in exchange for benefits from the CCP, he said.
Citing alleged surveillance of DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋), the party’s Taipei mayoral candidate, including the photographing of a minor child, as well as attacks on political commentator Akio Yaita and comedian Huang Yi-hao (黃逸豪), Wang said acts that appear to constitute ordinary contraventions of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) or the Criminal Code should be assessed differently if they involve authorization or funding from hostile foreign forces.
Wang likened the proposed changes to stipulations of the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例), which allows authorities to target criminal organizations behind individual offenses.
“China can be described as the biggest criminal organization today — the biggest gang as far as Taiwan is concerned,” he said, adding that failing to account for the organizations behind such crimes would undermine deterrence.
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