A reception that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) attended in London on Sunday with local overseas Chinese was sponsored in part by supporters of Beijing's "Anti-Secession" Law, the head of a British-Taiwanese association said yesterday.
Taiwanese Association in the UK director Lee Yi-te (
"Lin Wei (
PHOTO: CNA
"We're stunned that Ma accepted a reception and donation from someone who supported the Anti-Secession Law. Chan had personally suggested to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) the need to legislate the Anti-Secession Law," Lee said.
"He [Chan] has also been seen to openly support China's military aggression against Taiwan," Lee said.
"Ma said here that he is committed to defending Taiwan's sovereignty, but Chan's donation made us wonder whether he was saying one thing but doing another," Lee said.
Chan, who is also head of a British-Chinese association advocating Taiwan's unification with China, has supported Beijing's controversial law and use of military force against Taiwan in a number of publications.
"The Anti-Secession Law [has] the utmost respect for Taiwanese people's will for peace and is the best way to maintain the cross-strait status quo," Chan was quoted as saying by China's state-run Xinhua news agency on Dec. 21, 2004.
Ma is on the UK leg of a five-nation European tour.
He gave a speech on cross-strait relations during the reception on Sunday. The reception was organized by the KMT's UK branch, the Sun Yat-sen Association and the Republic of China Women's Association in the UK.
In addition to dozens of overseas Taiwanese residents in London, the attendees included overseas Chinese and Hong Kong residents.
Also present was a former official of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission (OCAC), Rao Gang (
"We're disappointed that these people were seen at Ma's reception. The appearance of a corrupt official at Ma's event was very ironic since Ma has long been trying to build a corruption-free image," Lee said.
"We wanted to ask if this means that if Ma is elected president, Rao's case [would] no longer be pursued by the authorities," Lee said.
Rao served as secretary of the OCAC in the UK for nine years. He has been wanted since September 2002 on suspicion of embezzling funds from the UK office's budget.
Meanwhile, the Taipei City Government yesterday denied that it planned the reception.
"I did not hear about any of this from our people in Europe. I do not know about anyone making donations to the mayor, but I do not think this is something planned by us," Wu Chyou-mei (
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS