A number of top politicians in southern Taiwan were indicted on corruption and other charges by Tainan prosecutors on Friday night, including the speaker and vice speaker of the Tainan City Council and the speaker of the Tainan County Council.
"A total of 68 defendants were indicted in three cases," said Fan Wen-hao (
Tainan City Council Speaker Huang Yu-wen (黃郁文) and Vice-Speaker Wong Chow-cheng (翁朝正) were indicted for bribery, blackmail and coercion.
Prosecutors recommended the court sentence Huang to 17 years in prison and fine him NT$100 million (US$ 2.9 million).
They have asked for a 12-year term and NT$30 million for Wong.
Prosecutors allege that Huang and Wong received more than NT$100 million from the Yiching Construction Co in order to arrange for the firm to win a construction job in the Heshuenliao (何順寮) agricultural area.
They said that Huang and Wong, as members of their council's construction committee, were responsible for reducing the budget of the Heshuenliao project from NT$240 million to NT$190 million and that the two men had orchestrated requirements on materials and other details to the Yiching's advantage.
Former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味), National Federation of Construction chairman Pan Chun-jung (潘俊榮), and Tainan County Councilor Lee Chuan-fu (李全富) were indicted on forgery charges for allegedly trying to arrange for other companies to be selected in the Heshuenliao tender process. Prosecutors have asked for 28-month jail terms for all three.
Tainan County Council Speaker Wu Chien-bao (吳健保) and Councilor Lee Chuan-fu, meanwhile, have been indicted on bribery and theft for their alleged involvement in illegal quarrying.
The prosecution has recommended a four-years-and-two-month sentence for Wu and five years for Lee.
The prosecutors allege that Wu and Lee illegally quarried sand from the Tsengwen River (
The prosecutors said Wu ran the Tainan-based Fu-hsin Co, which won a public bid in March last year to dredge the river's channel.
They said the contract called for the company to quarry silt from the river and deepen its channel to 4m. However, Fu-hsin deepened the channel to 13m, and then sold the dredged sand to construction companies while partially filling the channel with earth from the riverbank. The prosecutors said illegal quarrying had severely damaged the environment and endangered bridges along the river.
They said Lee had cooperated with Wu on the sand scam.
Tainan City Council Vice Speaker Tseng Shun-liang (
Prosecutors said Tseng also ran an illegal gambling operation that bet on professional baseball games.
Prosecutors have recommended a three-years-and-six-months term for Tseng.
Lee and Wu are both members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). All of the other politicians were elected as independents.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS