The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) launched a campaign in Washington last month to challenge the legitimacy of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) re-election, government sources told the Taipei Times.
"The KMT's representative in Washington, Jason Yuan (袁健生), mailed a 20-page booklet entitled Bulletgate to every US senator and House representative last month," the source said. "The pan-blue alliance is obviously intending to attach the `Taiwan issue' to the US presidential election."
The booklet lists pan-blue alliance suspicions relating to the election, including suggestions that the assassination attempt on March 19 was staged by Chen, that the ballot-counting process was fraudulent and that the referendum held on election day was a trick to evade the law.
The booklet also alleges that a "national security mechanism" triggered after the shooting prevented many soldiers from returning home to vote, and that illegal radio stations spread rumors that the shooting was a pan-blue alliance conspiracy.
"The mysterious shots caused a groundswell of sympathy votes for the pan-green ticket," the booklet says.
On May 20, the day of the presidential inauguration, advertisements without attribution ran in English-language newspapers referring to "Bulletgate" and inviting readers to call a telephone number for more information. The Bulletgate booklet was then sent to those callers who left their details.
The source said that a number of US congresspeople friendly to Taiwan transferred the booklet to Taiwanese officials.
"[The congresspeople] were surprised that Taiwan's opposition would try to spoil the country's democratic achievement," the source said.
A National Security Council official told the Taipei Times yesterday that the council had not received any report on the matter from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Taiwan's de facto embassy in the US.
But such a campaign could only harm the nation's image as well as the reputations of opposition politicians, the official said.
"It is a pity that the entire opposition alliance continues to wallow in the swamp [of losing]," the official said. "Its leaders are unable to look ahead, instead stalling at the day of [the presidential election]."
Su Chi (蘇起), former Mainland Affairs Council chairman during KMT rule and now a top international liaison aide to KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), confirmed that the National Policy Foundation, a KMT think tank, had produced Bulletgate and sent it to Yuan.
"We authorized Yuan to deal with the document. Now we are just in charge of collecting data and updating the latest situation in Taiwan into the booklet," Su said.
"At the very least, Yuan has sent the letter twice to every US congressmen since June," he said.
Su stressed that many friends in foreign countries were concerned about the nation's democracy and wanted to understand what happened during the presidential election. Therefore, he said, the KMT had to provide an account of it to the international community.
"We hope that the US heavyweights will not just listen to remarks that are made by the Chen administration," Su said.
Asked if the letter would meet the alliance's expectations of bringing pressure to bear on Chen's administration from overseas, Su said that his organization was not capable of tracking the reactions of every US congressman.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS