After the president returned from his trip abroad yesterday, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) rushed to meet him amid mounting criticism that Su had reacted slowly to the Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團) scandal.
While in Nicaragua, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) placed a call to Su and asked him to "be more vigilant" about the situation.
Two subsidiaries of the group -- China Rebar Co (中國力霸) -- and Chia Hsin Food and Synthetic Fiber Co (嘉新食品化纖) announced on Jan. 4 that they had applied for insolvency protection on Dec. 29 after suffering losses of more than NT$25.2 billion over the past seven years.
The move triggered a run on The Chinese Bank (中華銀行) -- also a subsidiary of the Rebar Group -- on Jan. 5.
After a two-hour meeting at the president's residence, Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) told the press that the president stood behind Su and his handling of the Rebar scandal.
"The premier did not offer his resignation to the president and they did not discuss potential candidates for the chairmanship of the Financial Supervisory Commission [FSC]," Cheng added.
Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) resigned as FSC chairman on Friday night over the Rebar scandal. Su approved Shih's resignation.
During the meeting, Su briefed Chen on the latest developments in the Rebar scandal and the Cabinet's efforts to deal with it, Cheng said.
Following the meeting with the president, Su returned to his office and called for a meeting with economic officials.
"The Cabinet now has the green light to go all the way in its investigation of the Rebar case, and to come up with proper punishments for specific individuals within the shortest time, and we will," Cheng said.
Prior to his meeting with Chen, Su, speaking at a separate event yesterday morning, said "the [Rebar] case is just like a time bomb."
"This bomb has been ticking for more than a decade, and it just so happened that it was I who was holding the bomb when it blew up," he said.
Referring to the government's decision to intervene and take over The Chinese Bank, Su said that the government was not using taxpayer's money funds to reimburse depositors.
According to the regulations of the Financial Reconstruction Fund, the government must not only take over a troubled bank, but must ensure that all depositors can withdraw their money, he said.
Meanwhile, opposition parties continued to find fault with the government's handling of the scandal.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) condemned Chen for what he described as turning a blind eye to the scandal, urging the president to apologize to the public.
"[Rebar Group founder] Wang You-theng (王又曾) accompanied President Chen seven times on diplomatic trips and has close ties with the government. That is why financial overseers couldn''t handle the scandal," Ma said during a trip to Taoyuan County.
Wang was a senior member in the KMT.
Ma added that Su should take partial responsibility for "failing to solve" the financial crisis, and although Shih had resigned on Friday, Chen's "close ties" with Wang made the president the one who should shoulder responsibility.
"It's unfair to ask Shih, who took over the position not long ago, to take responsibility," he added. "We should find out the backstage manipulator who was influencing policy."
Presidential Office Spokesman David Lee (李南陽) called Ma's remarks "unfair."
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih and Ko Shu-ling
Also see stories:
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS