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.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by