Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Kentaro Iemoto/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 2.0
A CASE OF a former general who stood for the Chinese national anthem has been probed as potentially violating the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.
Specifically, former general Tsang You-hsia stood for and sang the Chinese national anthem during an event hosted by the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification in Hong Kong in late November. Tsang was also the previous head of the Huang Fu-hsiang chapter of the KMT, which consisted mostly of retired veterans. He was in attendance with Republic of China Military Academy Specific Subject Course Alumni Association chairman Chiang Cheng-lung. The KMT has emphasized it no longer has links to Tsang.
The Ministry of National Defense stated that it is investigating the allegations. If Tsang is punished, he will likely lose his pension.
Yet it is noteworthy that the charges that Tsang violated the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area originated with the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC). Consequently, it is to be seen if the MAC intends to pursue other cases of former military personnel violating laws.
Taiwan has long faced the issue of former military personnel traveling to China to meet with Chinese government officials or Chinese military counterparts. This poses several risks to Taiwan.
First, there is the possibility of former Taiwanese military personnel leaking secrets to China, particularly if they are of a pan-Blue political persuasion. But to this extent, there is also the possibility that China would use this for propaganda purposes, to decrease public faith in the military’s capacities or willingness to defend Taiwan from Chinese attack.
Mainland Affairs Council podium. Photo credit: 美國之音 楊明/Public Domain
Punishments against such military personnel have historically been lax. Namely, Taiwan is not technically a separate country from Taiwan, per the ROC constitution, as a result of which such actions are not punishable, even if this could be understood as treason. Spying has also faced light penalties historically, seeing as such individuals are not technically spying for another country.
China has also sought to create propaganda with active duty military personnel in recent times, such as recording videos of military personnel vowing to immediately surrender in the event of a war with China.
Nevertheless, it has become more common for military personnel to face being stripped of their pensions for violations in past years. This occurred when former Lieutenant Colonel Tu Yung-hsin was convicted of spying earlier this year, for example, in addition to being made to serve four years in jail.
During the authoritarian era, the KMT rewarded members of the military, police, teachers, and public servants with lucrative pensions and an 18% annual preferential saving rate. This was as a reward for political loyalty, seeing as the KMT realized that it needed to maintain the support of such individuals in order to politically administrate Taiwan.
The Tsai administration sought to reform the pension system in Taiwan during its tenure, to avoid it going bankrupt. Nevertheless, the KMT has dug its heels against the issue and currently seeks to overturn the Tsai administration’s pension reforms so as to benefit a political interest group that historically backed the KMT. Likewise, such groups see the DPP-led pension reform as a blow to the prestige that they once had under the time of KMT rule. But as veterans stand to be significantly impacted if they lose their pensions, this is probably why targeting their pensions has become an increasingly common response by the government to cases of spying or participating in Chinese propaganda.
It is to be seen if former military personnel will increasingly face punishments for actions such as singing the Chinese national anthem. Singing the Chinese national anthem is something that KMT politicians who travel to China for diplomatic trips have sometimes also done.
Similarly, it is to be seen if the MAC being the government body that has pushed for framing singing the Chinese national anthem as violating the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area is of any significance. This could be an attempt to pressure other government bodies that have historically been more reluctant to punish such actions.