Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) never called President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) a "kickback president," he said yesterday.
Rather, his campaign staff wrote it instead.
Hwang Yih-jiau (
First lady Wu Shu-chen's (吳淑珍) defamation suit, filed yesterday, should not be allowed by prosecutors to proceed, Hwang said.
The draft campaign speech was faxed by the alliance to media organizations on Saturday. It described Chen as a "10 percent president" who levied kickbacks of 10 percent of the value on major infrastructure projects.
Hwang did not explain, however, how circulating a draft speech containing the allegation to media outlets was in any way less defamatory than voicing the allegations at a campaign rally.
Instead he claimed that the alliance was simply asking questions about the president's probity that were in the public interest and frequently asked by ordinary people.
Whether a president has been involved in any insider trading or accepted illegal political donations are issues that fall within the scope of public discussion as they are matters of concern to the public, Hwang said.
These are issues which all citizens can call into question and that the president should not shy away from addressing, he said.
The alliance also launched a new ad campaign yesterday attempting to rebut accusations from the DPP that the Lien family's immense wealth -- estimated at NT$20 billion -- was the result Lien family members using their political connections during the era of the martial law dictatorship to illegally both acquire land and change that land's designated use.
The ad branded the DPP's charges as "false accusations," "smearing," "shameless," "distorted" and "purely fictitious."
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS