Taiwan relaxes rules to accelerate declassification of state secrets

Taipei, Dec. 8 (CNA) Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed amendments Friday to abolish rules allowing some national security information to remain permanently classified, which could lead to more political archives from Taiwan's authoritarian past being made available.

Under amendments to the Classified National Security Information Protection Act that were enacted, the confidentiality of state secrets that could implicate national security intelligence sources or channels will be limited to 30 years.

If confidentiality remains important after 30 years, it can be extended in increments of up to 10 years, subject to approval by the original agency or its superior authority, the amendments stipulate.

For national secrets to be kept confidential for over 60 years, permission must be secured from a superior authority, according to the amendments.

The Legislature also passed amendments to the Political Archives Act, which stipulate that political files categorized as national security information should be declassified after 40 years instead of being kept confidential forever.

Political archives mainly refer to documents or other records dating to the period from Aug. 15, 1945 to Nov. 6, 1992 related to the 228 Incident and files established in the martial law era under the then Kuomintang (KMT) government that are maintained by government agencies, political parties and their affiliated organizations.

The amendments were introduced as part of an ongoing effort to reveal past human rights abuses committed by state authorities, which the National Archive Administration said was in line with President Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) 2016 campaign platform to seek transitional justice.

The passage of the law means that half of the 4,500 political archives originally classified as permanently confidential will be declassified next year.