Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Lien, who is challenging Chen in the upcoming presidential election, argued that the DPP had falsely claimed that his personal assets were worth NT$20 billion, while the true value was NT$1.34 billion.
"With the election approaching, the DPP recently attacked me personally with an array of false accusations with regard to my family's assets and how they were acquired," Lien said at a press conference accompanied by lawyers and accountants.
Lien was referring to the DPP's latest television advertising campaign, which called into question how Lien and his father were able to accumulate their fortune while just civil servants.
The DPP also distributed 500,000 campaign pamphlets last Monday accusing the Lien family of illegally accumulating assets worth NT$20 billion.
"I can no longer sit in silence in view of the acts that undermine my reputation and negatively influence the people's trust in politics ... I have no choice but to take legal action against the DPP," Lien said before proceeding to file the suit at the Taipei Prosecutors' Office.
This is the first time in Taiwan's political history that an opposition leader has filed a lawsuit against the incumbent president.
Chen's being president protects him from criminal prosecution unless he is charged with committing an act of rebellion or treason. However, the Taipei Prosecutors' Office will process the suits against the other three defendants: DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (
In a bid to rebut the DPP's claims concerning the Lien family's assets, Alex Tsai (蔡正元), spokesman for the KMT-People First Party (PFP), revealed detailed accounts of Lien's personal assets broken down into cash saving, stocks, bonds, real estate and others.
Tsai also presented figures for Chen's assets, saying that the value of Chen's stocks and bonds had increased 125 percent between 2000 and 2002, while Lien's had decreased by 22 percent from 1999 to 2003.
Tsai said he wondered "whether any secret deals were involved that enabled Chen to make such a rewarding investment in stocks and bonds."
Noting that Lien and his wife had together donated 15 percent of their assets, worth NT$250 million, to reconstruction efforts following the Sept. 21, 1999, earthquake, while Chen and his wife donated only 2 percent of their assets, worth NT$2 million, Tsai asked, "Who of the two really loves Taiwan more?"
Another alliance spokesman, Yu Tzu-shiang (
"Lien's property amounts to a mere 189 ping, yet the DPP exaggerated it 106 times in its campaign pamphlet and said it is big enough to build five Tienmu baseball fields on," Yu said. "The public should abandon a party that resorts to such negative campaigning."
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