President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) sought to dispel suspicions the March 19 assassination attempt against him had been staged, saying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
"I am willing to pay money to hire the best shooter in the world to make a test. If KMT Chairman Lien and PFP Chairman Soong would stand still on a Jeep to receive shots from the shooter and if the two could get the same wounds as I and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) did last Friday, I would step down as president," Chen said.
"If they [Lien and Soong] can't do it or if they are afraid of doing it, they had better keep their mouths shut," he said.
Chen made the remarks Saturday night at a press conference in which he made a formal response to accusations of foul play in the March 19 shooting incident in Tainan.
"I cannot accept the false accusations of my conducting the shootings or the suspicions that the incidents were faked. Would they believe them only if Lu and I were killed?" he said.
"I have never staged this shooting incident and there is nothing to hide. The investigation will be fair and transparent," Chen said. "I do not want to bear this bad name any longer."
Chen expressed thanks to State Public Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa (
"I am glad that internationally renowned forensic experts Henry Lee (
Lee has also served as a consultant to Lien during the election campaign.
The pan-blue camp had used the accusations to mobilize supporters to stage protests in front of the Presidential Office and to hold a massive rally on Saturday.
"Following the shooting incident, a national security mechanism was activated. But it did not affect the military's original plans to send soldiers back to their hometowns to cast votes in the next day's presidential elections," Chen said.
"The activation of the national security mechanism did not have any effect on the military. The only difference was that the leaders of the national security mechanism were unable to take leave and had to stay in their offices to be in command of the situation," he said.
Chen denied allegations by the pan-blue camp that over 200,000 service members were forced to stay on base and were deprived of their right to vote because of the activation of the security mechanism.
"These allegations were totally irresponsible and unfounded. The Ministry of National Defense has explained again and again that only one-ninth of the service members were kept in camp to execute combat missions on the day of the elections," Chen said.
"In comparison, one-sixth of the armed forces had to be on duty for the presidential election in 1996," he said.
"No extra service members were added to the forces that had to stand on guard on the election day this time," he said. "All the service records are available to be checked," he said.
Chen also attacked the blue camp for being mistrustful, saying it suspects everything that could be blamed for its election defeat.
"How dare they allege that the Chi Mei Medical Center's treatment of Vice President Lu and me were faked and all the medical files concerning this case were forged?" he asked.
"The dean of the Tainan-based Chi Mei Medical Center, Chan Chi-hsien (
The Chi Mei Medical Center was the hospital where Chen and Lu received treatment for the shootings last Friday.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
RSS