Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh's (
Despite her disapproval of her ex-husband's campaign against Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Shih's former wife Chen Li-chu (陳麗珠) showed up at the Legislative Yuan compound yesterday morning before DPP Legislator Lin Kuo-ching (林國慶) was scheduled to hold a press conference to reveal the letter.
Lin was forced to scrap his announcement and let Chen Li-chu tell her tale.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"I'm the owner of the letter, so I should be the one to tell the public what really happened," she said.
"I've put up with him [Shih] for over 40 years and have never done anything to hurt him. I don't understand why he is so cruel to me. I really don't," Chen Li-chu said.
She threatened to expose what she claimed were "immoral" incidents and "incest" in Shih's family if he and his family continued to provoke her by calling her a "whore" and denying the authenticity of the letter to Chiang. She did not elaborate.
The tearful 60-something Chen Li-chu said that she had taken the train from Kaohsiung to Taipei on Monday night, hoping to stop Lin before he revealed the contents of the letter.
She said that she had been offered NT$2 million (US$62,500) for the letter, but had turned it down.
"It's priceless. I would not sell it even for NT$20 billion, because it contains evidence of the Chinese Nationalist Party's [KMT] hideous crimes," she said.
Lin said that he had obtained a copy of the letter from a friend of Chen Li-chu. Shih had written the original in pencil and had given it to Chen Li-chu to smuggle out of prison, after which it had been transcribed in ink.
Chen Li-chu said that although she was disappointed with President Chen, he was nonetheless the country's elected leader.
Chen Li-chu brought a heavy black bag to the press conference, saying it contained thousands of letters Shih had written to her and the then KMT government during his incarceration, as well as the government's responses.
She also thanked the president for giving Shih NT$2 million (US$61,260) to help pay for their daughter Shih Shueh-hui's (
Chen Li-chu said that she did not know where the money had come from until she read a report in a newspaper a few days ago, but said that Shih had given her only NT$200,000.
DPP Legislator Wang Shih-cheng (
Wang called on Shih to present a clear account of how much money he had received from the president and how he spent it.
While Shih's lawyer has said that Shih spent only NT$6 million on a condominium which Wang claimed had been a gift from fugitive tycoon Chen Yu-hao (
Even if Shih did spend NT$6 million on the condo, Wang said, he still owed the public an explanation why he did not list the condo in his 2001 financial declaration.
Shih's lawyer, who used a purchase contract to show that Shih had bought the property for NT$6 million, has said that Shih was considering filing a lawsuit against Wang.
Wang said yesterday that he would welcome a lawsuit, because he had "key evidence" to divulge to the court.
Shih, at a press conference held yesterday to announce that his anti-Chen campaign had achieved its fundraising goal of NT$100 million, made no mention of the letter.
He refused to take questions from reporters.
Ho De-fen (
"Even if Shih did [write the letter], it would have been understandable for someone in his position. Except for former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (
She said that Shih would not respond to allegations aimed at him.
also see stories:
NPA to deploy `special police' for sit-in
DPP legislators want funds raised by Shih to be frozen
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat