Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), whose presidential nomination was rescinded by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Saturday, yesterday hired an attorney to sue online news outlet Storm Media for defamation over a report alleging that she had called for the extraordinary party congress at which she was replaced.
Storm Media on Thursday reported that former minister of transportation and communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) — an adviser to Hung’s campaign team — had been among the first group of people to be summoned by the Special Investigation Division (SID) on Wednesday over its probe of Hung’s ouster.
Yeh was the go-between between party headquarters — under the leadership of KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) — and the Hung camp, and conveyed messages and brokered meetings between the two sides, the report said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The report said that an Oct. 6 meeting between Chu and Hung — seen as the “final showdown” between the two — was brokered by Yeh.
At the meeting, Chu is said to have asked Hung to withdraw her presidential bid under her own initiative.
Hung reportedly refused to give up the campaign, saying she had been elected by the party’s due processes and was therefore the legitimate candidate.
“Hung insisted that it if she was to be replaced, it had to be done via the party’s mechanism, which mandated the calling of an extraordinary party congress, otherwise she feared she would be beset by legal problems,” the report said.
The piece also claimed that Hung had told her friends in tears that “the game is over” when she saw on Oct. 6 that even the Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) faction — the special military veteran branch of the KMT s — had sent out messages to their members calling on them to support Chu.
Hung’s office issued a news release on Thursday night rebutting the report, saying that Hung had from the beginning refused to accept any suggestion that would violate ethics and procedural justice.
“Hung was not able to prevent the calling of the congress nor the decision to replace her; distorting the facts and saying there was a ‘tacit agreement’ or that it was Hung who wanted the congress is intolerable,” the statement said.
The office accused Storm Media of “seriously damaging Hung’s political honesty and personal integrity, qualities that she values immensely.”
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
RSS