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Oct 28, 2008

NSB news

China apologized for the melamine scandal rather late, but I think that's not the big news today. Rather, it's this:

Lawmakers across party lines yesterday vowed to block a draft bill that seeks to allow National Security Bureau (NSB) personnel to detain and search anyone who might endanger the safety of an incumbent or retired president when protecting the current or former national leader....

When approached by reporters in the legislature, Chen Ping-lin (陳炳林), director of the NSB’s Law and Regulation Committee, defended the draft bill, saying that the proposal was meant to limit rather than expand the power of NSB officials.

Chen said NSB officials would only enjoy the authority stipulated in the proposal under emergent circumstances or when the security of the incumbent or former president was breached.
Now mind you, this comes on the heels of another piece of NSB news yesterday, namely that the security detail for Chen Yunlin will be headed by the NSB, which appears to violate the law (I think only heads of state are supposed to receive NSB security).

I'm just glad the law won't be passed in its current form.

1 comment:

Tim Maddog said...

This is nothing to be glad about with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) having as much power as they do these days and with the way they're using it.

Whether the NSB law passes or not, we're already moving rapidly toward the days of martial law under the old KMT, where gangs were openly used to control political dissidence.

And a letter to the SEF ("Here. You tell 'em!") hardly counts as "apologiz[ing] for the melamine scandal."

Tim Maddog