Prosecutors named Vice Premier Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) yesterday a witness in their investigations into the Papua New Guinea diplomatic fund scandal and barred him from leaving the country.
“I did not pocket any money and I am innocent,” Chiou told reporters as he left the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office after questioning yesterday afternoon.
Two high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) — director-general of the Department of East Asia and Pacific Affairs Donald Lee (李傳通) and Yang Te-chuan (楊德川), comptroller of the accounting department — were also summoned for questioning yesterday.
The two were later released without bail.
The news came hours after Chiou said he was quitting the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and would drop out of politics for good after the Cabinet resigns to shoulder responsibility for the scandal.
Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) read a statement yesterday morning signed by Chiou, who was on a leave of absence, saying he would leave his “beloved” party, effective immediately, and retire from politics for good after leaving office on May 20.
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) is scheduled to lead the Cabinet in resigning on May 14 following the DPP’s defeat in the presidential election.
As to whether Chiou had tendered his resignation, Chang told reporters yesterday that he had not received Chiou’s resignation and that Chiou never said he would resign.
Chang said it was important that he establish the facts before he considered whether to dismiss Chiou, Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) and Deputy Minister of National Defense Ko Cheng-heng (柯承亨).
Chiou had said resigning would be “hypocritical,” as the Cabinet is set to resign next week. He said, however, that no one could shirk his responsibilities — judicial, political and administrative.
As prosecutors are investigating the case, Chang said the Executive Yuan would respect the inquiry and hoped the truth of the matter would be uncovered as quickly as possible.
Chang called a meeting with government agencies yesterday and instructed them to do their utmost to recover the money and locate Ching Chi-ju (金紀玖), one of the brokers believed to have been involved in the botched deal.
Chang also urged China to provide information of Ching’s whereabouts and give necessary assistance.
The Executive Yuan will also form a taskforce to determine whether Chiou, Huang and Ko should be held responsible, he said.
Taking into account that the Cabinet will resign in less than two weeks, Shieh said the ministers would attempt to resolve the matter before the end of their mandate.
Shieh, however, said that Ching and Wu Shih-tsai (吳思材) were the key players in the scandal and that Beijing’s suppression of Taiwan’s diplomatic space made secret deals like the Papua New Guinea one inevitable, regardless of who is in power.
He also called for the incoming Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration to assess the necessity of secret diplomatic deals and adjust its diplomatic policies accordingly.
The case took on more complexity yesterday when sources revealed that Huang and another high ranking MOFA official may have been part of a group of 10 individuals set to receive kickbacks from the affair.
One report also said that Ching, who it claimed had absconded with the entire US$30 million, had tried to entice Huang to shoulder responsibility for the foul up in exchange for a handsome payoff.
MOFA came to Huang’s defense yesterday, saying he had “never received any phone calls from or been in contact with” Ching.
Huang was unavailable for comment yesterday.
The Chinese-language United Evening News reported yesterday that prosecutors had in their possession a piece of paper listing 10 names — including Huang and Lee — specifying how the 10 were suppose to divvy up the money.
“No MOFA official received bribes from the scandal,” Lee told reporters as he was escorted into an interview room yesterday afternoon.
Huang and Lee are listed as witnesses in the case.
In August 2006, then-National Security Bureau secretary-general Chiou commissioned Ching and Wu, a Singaporean, to act as intermediaries to push for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Papua New Guinea.
Wu was to represent the Papuan side while Ching acted as his contact in Taipei.
During a press conference in Taipei on Saturday, Wu said the Papuan government had only asked for US$20 million before it was willing to dump Beijing for Taiwan, but when he reported the figure back to Ching, he allegedly told Wu to ask for US$40 million from the foreign ministry.
“When I asked him [Ching] for an explanation, he took out a piece of paper and wrote down the reasons and various fees [which added up] to US$20 million. I kept that piece of paper,” Wu said.
News reports said the note written by Ching stated that Huang was to receive US$1 million while Lee would obtain US$400,000 from the deal.
Huang said on Saturday he was unaware of the original asking price and that during his negotiations with Wu he had insisted on limiting the figure to US$30 million.
One month later, at Chiou’s request, MOFA wired US$200,000 to a Papuan account as reimbursement for their official’s travel fees and US$29.8 million to Wu and Ching’s joint account at the OCBC Bank in Singapore, Huang said.
The gesture was to “secure the interests” of the Papuan government.
However, when Taiwan backed out on the deal in December 2006, Ching refused to return the money and has since gone into hiding.
The ministry said it kept in touch with Wu and sought many ways to retrieve the funds, but to no avail.
“For a year, Wu repeatedly assured us the money remained in the joint account. But one day in March [this year], Wu suddenly told us he had already transferred his share of the account ownership to Wu. It was around that time that he handed us the paper with the names [of the 10 individuals],” ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said.
The ministry says it immediately turned the list over to the prosecutors.
Skeptics have speculated that Wu fabricated the evidence to distance himself from the scandal, while other suspect Ching made up the list to justify the additional US$20 million.
Prosecutors confirmed yesterday that there were six or seven names on the list, but refused to reveal their identity.
They said that any government official who had pocketed money from the fund would be charged with corruption.
Meanwhile, prosecutors also summoned Wu for questioning yesterday and accompanied him in search for additional documents.
Prosecutors searched four sites, including the Taipei residence of a businessman surnamed Wang (王) as well as a hotel.
The Chinese-language China Times reported that someone familiar with the case had said that Ching had called Huang after the scandal broke, asking him to take the blame in exchange for a “payoff.”
“The minister never received such a call,” Yeh said.
In related news, Shieh said yesterday that the authorities would provide Wu with 24-hour physical protection, as he had expressed concerns over his personal safety.
They will also provide protection to Huang, who has raised similar concerns, Shieh said.
Meanwhile, the KMT caucus requested yesterday that State Public Prosecutor-General Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明) ask that the Special Investigation Panel take over the investigation.
At a press conference, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said the caucus would also demand that the premier report to the legislature on how the Cabinet intends to recover the money and save the nation’s dignity, in accordance with the Law Governing the Legislature’s Power (立法院職權行使法).
KMT Legislator Chang Hsieh-yao (張顯耀) urged prosecutors to detain Chiou if necessary.
“Chiou did has not taken any concrete action through the nation’s diplomatic, national security and judicial system in the past year, which prompted my suspicions,” Chang said.
Chang said Huang had admitted to him last week that he also had reservations about how Chiou had dealt with the case and that he had argued with Chiou on numerous occasions.
Chang urged President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to explain himself to the public immediately.
“It is the president’s authority to make major diplomatic policies. Since the president knew [about the deal], why didn’t the he explain why he turned a blind eye to Chiou’s actions?” Chang said.
Huang last night said that any claims that connect him to the so-called list are false.
“If I wanted to take the money, then why didn’t I agree to sign the communiques especially when I had two chances to do so?” he said, adding that he trusted the integrity of his colleague, Donald Lee.
He said if he had intended to make money, it would have been “foolish” to slash the amount from US$40 million to US$30 million.
“The reason I refused to sign and insisted on bargaining the amount down was because I wanted to safeguard the national interest,” Huang said.
Huang said that no one has been able to ascertain that the list was written by Ching and given to Wu.
A close friend of Huang’s told reporters last night on condition of anonymity that MOFA had long suspected Wu’s intentions, but had to “keep him close” so they could monitor and use him to try to establish contact with Ching.
“He [Huang] could have kept the whole thing quiet and not taken legal action against Ching. After all, many similar things happened during the KMT period and the government kept it quiet. But Huang believed in protecting the national interest, so he exposed the case even though he knew it would cause a political storm,” the friend said.
The source also said the Papua New Guinea government knew that the brokers raised the price from US$20 million to US$40 million and later reduced it to US$30 million.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
RSS