Presidential Office Secretary-General Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) confirmed a report in yesterday’s Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had used the state affairs fund to pay for a birthday party banquet for former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) last Saturday.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said yesterday that Ma’s use of the state affairs fund indirectly proved that the fund was similar in nature to a special allowance fund, adding that the investigation into former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) use of the state affairs fund should be conducted using the same guidelines as the probe into Ma’s use of his mayoral special allowance fund when he was Taipei mayor, and that Chen should therefore be found innocent.
Ma was acquitted earlier this year of charges that he embezzled funds from his special allowance fund during his eight-year term as Taipei mayor. Former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) was indicted in November 2006 on similar charges related to use of the president’s state affairs fund during Chen’s presidency, while Chen has been named as a defendant. Prosecutors have argued the two funds are different in nature.
Tsai said that while 300,000 people marched in the streets last Saturday to demand that the government boost the economy, Ma was spending money celebrating Lien’s birthday.
That showed that Ma does not share in the public’s suffering and it makes him look bad, Tsai said.
In response, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday that the use of the fund was appropriate, as holding a banquet for guests, domestic or foreign, receptions and the giving of rewards or gifts were all in accordance with the regulations for the use of the state affairs fund.
As the guest list consisted of people from the political sphere, their exchanges were very useful to Ma, Wang said.
Also See: Prosecutors summon Chen, Yeh
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’