Officials from the Tuntex Corporation (
In a statement released yesterday, Tuntex said due to its long-term business relationship with the KMT, the company had been willing to contribute money to the party.
The company then went on to appeal to all presidential candidates to tell the truth and return quickly to a campaign based on policy debate.
The statement follows claims made two days ago by a high-ranking government official that a business tycoon -- who he identified as being surnamed Chen -- had given a NT$100 million check to the KMT on June 10, 1991 to fund campaigning.
At that time, Soong served as the KMT's secretary-general. However, Chen refused to say whether he had given the money to Soong directly.
But the official, who was closely involved with the KMT's internal affairs, said the money had not been deposited in the KMT's public accounts, but instead was stashed in the account of Soong Chen-yuan at the Chung Hsing Bills Finance Corp (
When the first allegations in the mushrooming scandal were made public by KMT legislator at-large Yang Chi-hsiung (
Once the financial dealings were made public, members of Soong's campaign reportedly made private visits to Chen to ask him to be the "elder" that Soong had mentioned. But, the official said, when Chen realized that the donation had been transferred to Soong's son's account, the Tuntex president was too angry to play the role.
In addition to Chen, the official said, Soong also called on the son-in-law of the Shin Kong Corporation's (新光集團) Kuo Jui-sung (郭瑞嵩) -- who now serves as professor at Soochow University -- to ask for help, but that bid also failed.
Soong and Kuo had once been classmates, according to media reports.
Chief secretary to President Lee Teng-hui (
"Soong's secretary Yang Yun-tai (
Standing firm on his position, Su yesterday held a news conference urging Soong to apologize to both President Lee and the Taiwanese people.
Su said the media had exposed the fact that Chen might be the "elder" that Soong was looking for. This was proof Soong had concocted the entire story in a bid to cover his tracks, Su said.
"Having watched the development of events and heard Soong's statements regarding Chung Hsing Bills Finance, it proves that in order to get away from the money scandal, Soong cooked up the story by saying he acted under Lee's direction,'' Su said.
Soong, meanwhile, refused further comments yesterday. However, he has asked former National Chungshing University president Huang Tong-shong (
Huang said that if the KMT still refuses to accept the money, Soong would probably hand the money over to the courts instead. According to current regulations, Huang said, the money would automatically be delivered to the national treasury within 10 years.
KMT officials dismissed Soong's gesture yesterday as a mere "political show.''
"The action [referring to Soong's move to end the trust deal with the KMT] is meaningless. Since Lee never demanded Soong conduct any private work, there is need to end such an appointment,'' said KMT spokesman Huang Huei-chen (
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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