Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials yesterday struggled to clarify claims of alleged power struggles within the party revealed by US diplomatic cables recently released by WikiLeaks.
New Taipei City (新北市) Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), whose conversations with then-American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director Stephen Young in 2008 and 2009 on struggles between figures within the KMT has caused a political storm, yesterday again denied making the comments, saying that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) trusted him to be cautious when addressing sensitive issues.
“This is an unexpected disaster, but I will face it with courage ... I believe the content of the cables were the personal interpretations of Stephen Young, which are distorted and inaccurate,” he said yesterday after attending a city cooperation event at Taipei City Hall.
Photo: CNA
According to the cables, Chu, a KMT vice chairman at the time, told Young Ma was not as naive as former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) when handling cross-strait relations, adding that Ma was trying to ease out the party’s “old guard,” including Lien and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
The cable also said Chu told Young shortly after Ma assumed the presidency in 2008 that Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) had recommended that then-premier Liu Chao-shuan (劉兆玄) form the Cabinet in order to thwart Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung’s (江丙坤) attempt to take over as premier, the cables said.
In the cables, Chu said that prior to the presidential election in 2008, Wang had invited him to serve as his running mate after a fortunteller told Wang that he would become the party’s presidential nominee because Ma would be forced to withdraw from the race after being indicted on charges of alleged misuse of his special allowance.
Siew yesterday dismissed the content of the leaked cables, saying that as a long-time friend and colleague of more than 30 years, he would never try to ruin Chiang’s chances of serving as premier.
Wang yesterday also denied the claims and dismissed another leaked US cable pertaining to his criticism of Ma.
A cable dated Feb. 14, 2007, said Wang told Young that Ma’s presidential chances “were finished” following his indictment in a special allowance corruption case, and that the KMT would select a new presidential candidate.
While expressing his intention to replace Ma as the party’s presidential nominee, Wang criticized Ma as a “poor and ineffective leader.”
Wang also described Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) as “too corrupt,” and Chiang as too powerless when discussing their presidential chances.
Wu yesterday said it was “impossible” for Wang to make such comments, adding that Young might have misunderstand Wang’s remarks.
“Maybe he heard it wrong because he is a foreigner. Maybe he didn’t hear it clearly,” he said.
Amid the rows sparked by the leaked cables, Chu yesterday dismissed concerns about his political future as a promising star in the KMT and a possible presidential candidate in 2016.
“Everyone [in the KMT] still has confidence in me,” he said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS