Media personality Clara Chou (周玉蔻) yesterday gave her testimony and made more allegations as she went to the Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to provide evidence to back her accusation that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had received a large sum of money as a political donation from the food-scandal-tainted Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團).
Accompanied by her lawyer, Chou brought files and documents to the session with the SID yesterday morning, which she said were evidence to present to Prosecutor Lin Cheng-tsung (林承宗), who is leading the investigation.
Chou told reporters that she has confidence in her evidence.
Photo: CNA
“All my statements are backed up by sources and secret witnesses,” she said.
While being interviewed by the media at her SID appearance, the radio host ignited more controversy by accusing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) of leaking classified government material to Ting Hsin.
“When Ting Hsin was embroiled in the food scandal earlier this year, Wu applied to the Ministry of Health and Welfare for access to internal confidential reports. Later on, Wu leaked these classified government information and reports to Ting Hsin,” Chou said.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
The veteran media personality went on the offensive against Ma and KMT officials.
“The Ma administration, including Ma himself, the KMT caucus at the legislature and KMT legislators were obvious in their group effort to protect Ting Hsin and shield the company from prosecution,” she said.
After her session with the SID, Chou told reporters that she had offered to name her “secret witnesses” so that the SID could investigate the four major alleged cases of bribery and influence-peddling involving Ma, his officials and Ting Hsin.
“I have the sources, the witnesses and details of where they got the information. When they decide to investigate these cases, I will cooperate fully with SID prosecutors and reveal the names and all the evidence,” she said.
Chou has caused political turmoil in the past week by going public with allegations that Ma received NT$200 million (US$6.3 million) in an off-the-books political donation from Ting Hsin, citing witnesses and sources among former officials in the National Security Council.
Her accusations have severely tarnished Ma’s image, which prompted him on Thursday to vow to file a lawsuit, in an individual capacity, against Chou.
The case is in the evidence-gathering stage and there is no clear defendant as yet, SID Director Kuo Wen-tung (郭文東) said.
The SID is looking at Chou’s statements and her evidence to determine whether the case falls under the division’s jurisdiction, Kuo said, adding that if not, it would be transferred to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS