‘China a foreign hostile force’: Taiwan President Lai moves to restore military trials

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te on Thursday announced the reinstatement of military tribunals, allowing them to run trials during peacetime and hear Chinese espionage cases as Beijing asserts the island nation as its own.

Lai told reporters that the government of Taiwan is working to amend the Military Trial Act to allow “military judges to return to the front line and collaborate with prosecutorial and judicial authorities in handling criminal cases involving active-duty military personnel."

The tribunals will be applicable to crimes like treason, aiding the enemy, leaking classified information, dereliction of duty, and insubordination.

The number of people prosecuted for spying for Beijing has risen sharply, with retired and serving members of Taiwan’s military the main targets of Chinese infiltration efforts, official figures show.

The amendment of the law will be a first-of-its-kind decision for a country that was under military rule for decades until the early 1980s. Taiwan currently bans peacetime military tribunals.

Taiwan’s intelligence agency previously said that 64 people were prosecuted for Chinese espionage in 2024, compared with 48 in 2023, and 10 in 2022.

The changes proposed by Lai would apply to crimes committed by serving members of the military during peacetime.

They would have to be approved by the opposition-controlled parliament, Ryan Yen-Hsuan Chen, a lawyer and executive committee member of the Judicial Reform Foundation, told AFP.

Taiwan disbanded the military court system after the death of a young corporal in 2013.

Hung Chung-chiu died of heatstroke on July 4, 2013 just three days before the end of his compulsory year-long military service.

With inputs from AFP