The Kuomintang League in the Legislative Yuan held a press conference today and announced that it will propose a "Draft Amendment to Certain Articles of the Criminal Code" in the new session. For crimes such as major sexual violence, drug driving, child abuse resulting in death or serious injury, and serious aggravated fraud, "forced whipping" will be added as a mandatory punishment in the criminal law. However, this issue has been discussed frequently since the referendum proposal, and even the People's Party does not support it. In this regard, the People's Party Group said today that it respects the rights of the blue camp's proposal, but major adjustments in punishment methods must be subject to full public discussion.
The Kuomintang League held a press conference today (30th) to "increase whipping into law". Secretary-General of the Party League Xu Yuzhen and Chief Deputy Secretary-General and Legislator Hong Mengkai attended to explain the details of the draft amendments to some provisions of the criminal law to be proposed in the new session. The draft states that the court may declare more than three times , Compulsory whippings of up to 12 strokes are considered "accessory punishment" and are applicable to certain cases of drugged driving and cases of death and serious injury, serious sexual violence such as aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault causing death and serious injury; serious child abuse causing death and serious injury; and major aggravated fraud cases that meet the threshold.
Hong Mengkai emphasized that the draft originated from the caning referendum of the Central Election Commission, and the direct proposed amendments to the law are to allow public security, fraud and major violent crime issues to be openly examined and discussed item by item in Congress; while taking into account legal penalties, the principle of proportionality and medical safety, a criminal system that is more deterrent and more responsive to victims will be established.
However, when the Legislative Yuan met in mid-August to vote on the proposal to tie a referendum to the general election at the end of the year, the People's Party group's "euthanasia" referendum proposal was first abstained from by the Kuomintang group. The seven People's Party legislators who attended the vote also "all abstained". Expressing his disapproval of the caning referendum; white committee member Xu Zhongxin also emphasized at the People's Party caucus press conference at the end of last month that he had "expressed his opposition to the law of caning very early", but did not have the authority to speak on behalf of the caucus, triggering follow-up discussions on the "blue and white" issue of the referendum.
Faced with the proposal of legalizing the proposal to be "whipped" by the Blue Committee in the new session, the People's Party caucus chief and legislator Chen Qinglong Jin said that he "respects the right of the Kuomintang caucus to propose amendments to the law." He pointed out that major adjustments to punishment methods must be subject to sufficient public discussion; and the People's Caucus has previously held debates in the hope that different viewpoints can be presented and to jointly find effective solutions to curb crimes such as drug driving, sexual violence, child abuse causing death and injury, and major fraud. At the same time, he also opposed the confiscation of the referendum by the electoral council, which was "a complete trample on the people's right to be the masters of the country."
