Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus acting Secretary-General Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) yesterday urged prosecutors to probe a media allegation that 12 incumbent and former legislators and a religious figure received a large amount of money from Wang You-theng (王又曾), the fugitive founder of the Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團).
Hsieh urged prosecutors to complete the investigation as soon as possible to clarify the matter.
He said KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春), who was allegedly among the 12 legislators, would cooperate with investigation.
The caucus' press conference came after a report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday that said Wang had secretly paid a total of NT$5.6 billion (US$184 million) to the legislators between 1999 and 2006.
The newspaper claimed it had obtained a 30-page copy of Wang's remittance details, which it said prosecutors copied from Wang's personal notebook.
The report alleged that the money was paid to 13 people -- including Kuo, KMT legislators Lo Ming-tsai (
The money they individually received ranged from NT$268.5 million to NT$1.5 million, the report said, but it did not mention details of why they received the money.
Kuo yesterday dismissed the allegations.
"He [Wang] did not wire any money to my bank accounts, nor did I ever receive any money from him," Kuo said.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash