Chapter 7: Taiwan's New Image (Part 2)

  In May 1970, after a series of negotiations with Chiang Ching-kuo and with his full support, the government agencies in Taiwan began to be rectified. First, several special agent organizations were abolished, and a large number of intelligence personnel used to monitor underground parties on the island were cut and merged, and these selected intelligence personnel were handed over to Lin Feng for retraining.

  After the training, they became the backbone of Lin Feng's newly established intelligence department. Because Lin Feng himself was from an intelligence background, he handled these tasks with ease. After reorganizing, Lin Feng divided Taiwan's entire intelligence organization into two main blocks: one was the Military Intelligence Bureau, which was responsible for collecting war-related intelligence and catering to military needs; the other was the newly established National Security Bureau, which would be further divided into four departments: Economic Intelligence Division, Technical Intelligence Division, Public Safety Division, and Strategic Intelligence Division. The National Security Bureau was headed by the President, but now both the Security Bureau and the Military Intelligence Bureau were under Lin Feng's control.

  After taking control of Taiwan's intelligence agencies, Lin Feng began to reform the Taiwanese civil service system, starting with a civil service examination that was divided into written and oral tests. This exam was not only open to incumbent civil servants but also to members of society who met certain conditions.

  After months of effort, the tumultuous civil service examination finally came to an end. In the end, more than 300 in-service personnel were dismissed by the government, over 500 people were demoted, and more than 50 new recruits were accepted from all walks of society.

  The whole government department was indeed refreshed, and the people who used to wander around chatting, reading newspapers everywhere had disappeared, and there were people working hard everywhere.

  This is exactly what Lin Feng wanted, and he took the opportunity to reorganize the Executive Yuan with Chiang Ching-kuo. The original eight ministries and two councils were adjusted to twelve ministries, two councils, and one office, adding the Ministry of Land Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and Public Security, and Ministry of Culture. The Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission was abolished, and the National Science Council and the Audit Office were added.

  After the adjustment, each department implements a one-person responsible system without deputy positions. The newly established Audit Office is headed by Lin Feng, who decided to appoint a non-party person; the Minister of Agriculture is personally held by Lin Feng; the Ministry of Culture is held by Yan Zhenxing, the former Minister of Education; the Minister of Land and Resources is temporarily vacant and concurrently held by Chiang Ching-kuo; and the Minister of Health and Public Welfare is Zhang Zhikang.

  New department, new leader, new image. Nowadays in Taiwan, there are new appointments and transfers happening every day, making Taiwanese people feel dizzy.

  Taiwanese people now think the current government is too capable of "making trouble". The Executive Yuan has just finished the civil service examination, and the Legislative Yuan has started to make noise again. First, the Criminal Code was amended.

  From now on, if you engage in underworld activities in Taiwan, congratulations to you, you may face more than 15 years of imprisonment. In severe cases, you may be sentenced to death directly.

  Secondly, the Legislative Yuan re-enacted a law on public servants, which stipulates the code of conduct for public servants. Once a public servant is found to have acted illegally, he will be subject to more severe punishment than ordinary people. However, there is no law that increases taxes and oppresses ordinary people.

  In Taipei City, on Qingjiang Road, a newspaper stand owner, Mr. Li, was bored and reading the newspaper. Recently, with the strict crackdown, all sorts of thugs had disappeared, young people walking on the street were more polite, and no one came to collect protection fees anymore, those former hoodlums would even pay for the newspapers they took.

  Mr. Li couldn't help but feel proud of himself, thinking about what had happened recently, and now he dared to loudly scold those students who seemed like hoodlums, lest they also go astray. The current government is severely cracking down on the underworld, haven't you heard the sound of gunfire at the shooting range still echoing in your ears?

  However, he was still a little afraid of those patrolling police on the streets. After all, in the past, these patrolling police had bullied them, people with no power or influence, along with those hoodlums.

  He goes weak in the knees at the sight of a policeman. Now, as he sees two policemen approaching him, he involuntarily bends his waist and says, "Good day, officers."

  The police's subsequent actions completely confused him, and he saw two policemen rushing over to say: "Is there anything we can help you with, boss? And is it true that some young people around here have been causing trouble?"

  The people around immediately changed their expressions, now Taiwan is discussing the mixed colors, and the surrounding eyes are all focused on the boss of the newspaper stand. The boss also seems to feel that things have been misunderstood, and hurriedly said: "No, they are reading newspapers."

  Then, Boss Li found that although the two police officers were very stern in their tone, their behavior was more standardized. For example, they would salute and greet before asking questions. In the past, they would have spoken in a sloppy manner like little hooligans. "Hey, it's really different now, but this is good," Boss Li muttered to himself.

  Nowadays, major streets in Taiwan are like this scene. This is the result of Taiwan's law enforcement agencies rectifying and carrying out civilized law enforcement activities. This activity was proposed by Lin Feng in conjunction with some measures taken by the new China after his time.

  This activity aims to ease the tense relationship between the police and the people, due to long-term political oppression, resulting in a not-so-harmonious relationship between the Taiwanese government and the grassroots at this time. This also helps improve the relationship between the government and the people. This activity has also received strong support from Chiang Ching-kuo, who is actually quite close to the people.

  Of course, in order to appease many civil servants, Lin Feng also appropriately increased the salary of civil servants.

  In the newly promulgated Civil Servant Law, it is clearly stipulated that civil servants who accept bribes will be removed from all positions and prohibited from participating in civil servant selection examinations for life. They are also not allowed to hold any position in any government department. Any government department is not allowed to hire such persons under any circumstances or with any reason. At the same time, they will face punishment of one hundred times the amount of the bribe accepted.

  If you accept bribes exceeding a certain amount, sorry, you may spend the rest of your life in prison.

  So now these civil servants can be said to be trembling with fear, but even so, there are still many people working in government departments. Why? It's simple, the influence of traditional Chinese Confucian culture, "learned literary and military skills, sold to the imperial family" this sentence affects every Chinese person, what is sold to the emperor for? To be an official.

  In the past two months, what Taiwanese people have been hearing most is not anti-mainland rhetoric, but rather the "Ten Major Construction Projects" plan that is being tightly rolled out. In the past, there was always a string in the minds of Taiwanese people, and this string was the Kuomintang government's constant shouting of "anti-communist", with endless movements, and whenever there was any wind or grass movement on the mainland or in the US, Taiwan would become a place of ominous rumors.

  Now, there are no more agents constantly monitoring the whole day, nor is there anti-mainland propaganda. Instead, economic development and peaceful reunification have become mainstream, and government officials talk most about Taiwan's "Ten Major Construction Projects".

  It can be said that these projects are the most shocking economic plans in Taiwan's history. The Taiwanese community is both enthusiastic and skeptical about this, hoping to take advantage of this opportunity to make Taiwan's economy soar, but also full of doubts, after all, this plan was not proposed by any famous economist, but by Lin Feng, who has just come out of the thatched cottage.

  Moreover, such a huge plan is difficult to support with Taiwan's current financial resources. Just as the Taiwanese people were worried about gains and losses, the top ten construction plans that would eventually achieve Taiwan's economic miracle finally began to be implemented.

  On May 4, 1970, with the conclusion of Vice Premier Chiang's speech, the large-scale smelting plant of China Steel Corporation, which laid the foundation for Taiwan's industrial development, was inaugurated. At the same time, a nuclear fusion power plant was also under construction, secretly built with technical and equipment support from Lin Feng.

  Kaohsiung City is now filled with migrant workers everywhere, and the construction of the smelter has absorbed many local workers at once. The children in the local people's families either go to work on the construction site, or go to technical schools for study, or return home to farm, anyway, no one dares to hang out on the streets now, and the street girls have also been banned.

  Behind the scenes, there is no longer a black society that protects prostitution. In front of it, with the government's severe crackdown, basically all of Taiwan has eliminated red-light districts. In the revised Criminal Code, prostitution is considered to be of the same nature as organized crime. After witnessing the new government's thunderous anti-crime campaign, no one dares to cross the line. Therefore, some people say that Taiwan is now clean. Others say that Taiwan is undergoing a transformation, a transformation that benefits all Taiwanese people.

  Of course, while some people sing praises, others pour cold water. Some people have been fiercely attacking the government's laws in newspapers for not fully respecting human rights, and some criminal acts are sentenced too heavily, such as those gangsters who would at most be imprisoned for a few years elsewhere but would be sentenced to death in Taiwan.

  These remarks were also closely followed by Lam Fung, who even wrote an article to discuss the issue. For example, at that time, Lam Fung asked him in a newspaper: "This gentleman probably only paid attention to the sentence and forgot that these underworld figures have been sentenced multiple times for gang-related problems. I want to ask why? Isn't it because they think that punishment is too light for them? This gentleman always emphasizes the human rights of criminals, so I'd like to ask, what about the human rights of the victims? I warn those who commit crimes again: if you have committed underworld crimes, sorry, you may not have human rights."

  Lin Feng's words immediately sparked heated debate across Taiwan, roughly divided into two camps. Those lawyers who returned from Europe and the US were overwhelmingly critical, but ordinary people still showed strong support, after all, the actual results are there for everyone to see.

  No matter how noisy it was outside, another sudden event pushed Taiwan to the forefront, and Lin Feng didn't have the mood to deal with these so-called authorities in the legal world. He rushed back to the Presidential Palace, and when he arrived at the Presidential Palace, he knew that something big had happened just by looking at the crowd of people, but he didn't know what it was.