Independent presidential candidate Ellen Huang (黃越綏) said yesterday that the indictment of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) over embezzlement of public funds was aimed at attacking Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
“The most pathetic thing about Lee’s indictment was political intervention through the judiciary, making it a political tool to blow away [the ruling party’s] political rivals,” Huang said during a -gathering with netizens in Taipei yesterday evening.
Huang said that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) recently said the charge against Lee would point to Tsai’s involvement in an “816 project” under the secret diplomacy funds from which Lee allegedly embezzled. The 816 project was part of the Mingteh Project (明德專案) focusing on secret diplomacy with the US and Japan. Chiu alleged that Tsai received NT$2.62 million (US$91,147) from the 816 project and passed the money to Yang Chih-heng (楊志恆), who Chiu said was involved in the money-laundering charge against Lee.
The secret diplomacy funds were not created by Lee, but were established under Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and then former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), Huang said.
“They were funds at the discretion of presidents for diplomatic purposes. There was no reason to indict Lee because he did not pocket public funds,” she said, adding it was not difficult to find inconsistencies in Lee’s indictment.
Huang said that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was found not guilty in 2008 following an indictment against him in 2006 for misusing his special allowance during his stint as Taipei mayor. However Yu Wen (余文), the city government’s accountant, was jailed for nine months after being convicted of forgery in his handling of Ma’s expense account.
“Given this, how could it possible that Lee was guilty when the accountant general of the case, Hsu Ping-chiang (徐炳強), was already found not guilty,” Huang said.
Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), daughter-in-law of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), also attended the event to show her support for Ellen Huang.
Amid speculation that she might run for legislative seat in January’s elections, Huang Jui-ching said she would take up the challenge “if my father-in-law asks me to.”
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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