A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator yesterday accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of lying about his birthplace, saying Ma was born in Shenzhen, China, and not Hong Kong as Ma has said.
DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) told a press conference that Ma had a “trust issue” because he had lied about his birthplace.
Chai said that between 1981 and 1982, Ma signed three documents that proved he was not born in Hong Kong. Ma wrote in his first unpublished autobiography and on the birth certificate of his daughter Lesley Ma (馬唯中) that he was born in Shenzhen. In a second autobiography, Ma wrote Guangdong Province as his birthplace. Shenzhen is in Guangdong Province.
Showing copies of the three manuscripts at a press conference yesterday, Chai told reporters that Ma's signatures on the three documents were identical, hence the documents were authentic.
However, “when Ma started to run for public office, he told the public he was born in Hong Kong,” Chai said. “Ma was not honest at all.”
Chai said he had raised the issue last month in a press conference, asking Ma and the Presidential Office to clear the matter.
However, Ma has chosen to avoid the issue, he said.
“Honesty is very important for a head of state, and it is sad that Taiwan has a president who is not honest,” he said.
When reached by the Taipei Times for response yesterday, Presidential Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that the office had already shown a copy of Ma's birth certificate proving he was born in Hong Kong.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS