Proposed Technological Investigation Act Treats the People as Enemy
United Daily News Editorial, September 18, 2020
In the Conference on National Security Protection, President Tsai Ing-wen reminded national security agencies of Taiwan’s being a country that takes great account of democracy and human rights—officials, therefore, should keep in mind the rule of law foundation and the promise to protect human rights when they engage in national security jobs. On the surface, it sounds a reminder of caution to the security apparatus, but it actually is a superficial word. After taking office, President Tsai has strengthened investigations on information security and established a special information security branch of the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, under the pretext of “national security and protection of democracy.” In the meantime, the government’s infringement on the people’s rights has greatly expanded by way of the five laws of national security and the anti-infiltration law. Recently, the Ministry of Justice drafted a bill on Technological Investigation Act, under which the government plays the role of “Big Brother,” as it can monitor the entire population as a matter of course, and has reached the point where it has no balancing mechanism at all.
For more than four years, the Tsai administration has never stopped its covert actions in cracking down on dissidents, including even the public’s activities on the internet. Even so, security apparatuses still complained about a “shortage of weapons.” Chief Prosecutor Hsing Tai-chao of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office, was disgruntled that in the past five years, the rate of prosecution and conviction of national security cases has been as high as 90 percent, but nearly 60 percent of them have been sentenced to less than six months of penalty, which is not enough to be a deterrent. In fact, the object of the prosecution was only “small potatoes” who violated the national security, and the crime was so minor that the court could not make a heavy sentence. On the contrary, infiltration incidents that truly threatened the national security oftentimes failed to get to the truth. Take the computer theft case in the Office of the President as an example, many high-level decision-making secrets have leaked out, but so far they have found no clues. This phenomenon of “catch shrimps and release whales” mentality reveals the fact that the Tsai administration “politicizes” national security and neglects the “rule of law”; therefore, catching real Chinese communist spies seems out of the question.
In anti-fake information cases, focusing on small shrimps is even more common. Security officers search for criminals on the internet all day long to get some merits. But as of July 2020, 78 percent of the anti-fake information cases discovered by the police have not been prosecuted, and more than 80 percent of them have been ruled impunity by the court. They are sufficient to prove the law enforcement department’s abuse of power.
During the pandemic prevention period, the government unabashedly intercepted personal data of the people and implemented electronic monitoring. In fact, it was an act that violated the law. The public was forced to accept the unruly treatment, but the government, instead, tried to impose a “Technological Investigation Act” so as to conduct openly comprehensive investigation on the public. According to the bill by the Ministry of Justice, in the future, all technologies such as GPS monitoring, mobile phone and personal communication App monitoring, and even drone monitoring can all be carried out in accordance with the new law. In other words, if law enforcement agencies want to trouble anyone, they can conduct all-embracing searching, monitoring and tracking of the people’s whereabouts. The security agencies can become “legal hackers”, hacking the internet and mobile devices of the parties concerned, and even insert “Trojan horse programs” in them. Moreover, people who are not the subject of investigation could be monitored together as well. In this way, the privacy of the people is well exposed by the government’s encompassing sky net, with nowhere to hide.
What is more frightening is that the bill by the Ministry of Justice authorizes the heads of security agencies to issue warrants to monitor servers and computer terminals. In other words, the government can legally listen to mobile phones, monitor information on computers, and obtain personal data. In this way, let alone room for dissidents in Taiwan; even the general public is under the control of law enforcement surveillance. Can people live freely? To put it bluntly, this is the modern version of “Big Brother Law.” Its threats to human rights and damage to democracy are far beyond imagination.
Once the Technological Investigation Act is passed through the legislature, the Tsai administration will be, in nature, equivalent to that of the authoritarian China that she repeatedly condemned. The Ministry of Justice knew it well. So when publicizing the bill, it called on the public not to interpret it in a negative way. It does not have the courage to accept social scrutiny under the sun, so it shortens the notice and comment period from two months to five days. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is now in full control of the government, and it has repeatedly used “national security” and “transitional justice” as a guise to put democracy, the rule of law and human rights under its feet. On the surface, the targets it wants to strike are opposition parties and the so-called comrades of the Chinese Communist Party; but the results of repeated expansions and swelling of this “desire for control” is to treat all unspecified people as its suspicious enemies that must be controlled or even eliminated. This kind of overweening mentality and omnipresent government are the most terrifying.