Leaked cables from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) mention almost all the nation’s well-known politicians in both the pan-blue and pan-green camps, baring politicians’ true colors and throwing Taiwanese political circles into chaos.
The cables, released by -WikiLeaks on Aug. 30, suggest all major players from both camps are willing to tell all when they talk to AIT officials, whether commenting on current affairs or giving personal views about other political figures.
According to the cables, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said in July 2007 that then-KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) candidacy in the 2008 election was because “We have no other choice.”
According to an AIT cable from May 2007, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) was another KMT heavyweight who voiced his displeasure about Ma, because Ma had succumbed to blackmail by the People First Party (PFP), and lost a chance to “show guts” by ceding several legislative nominees to PFP members.
Infighting among the pan-green camp was also revealed by WikiLeaks.
Former DPP lawmaker Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in January 2008 to a senior AIT official that then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) up till that time was still not willing to share power, leading pan-green supporters to wonder who would run in the 2008 March presidential election. In the end, Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) ran — a development that she said would be unfavorable for the DPP campaign.
After Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) became DPP chairwoman in 2008, former party chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told then-AIT Taipei office director Stephen Young in October that Tsai was politically inexperienced and did not know enough about the party’s grassroots.
Hsieh also said Tsai was “too much like a scholar” and did not have enough in common with the party’s rank-and-file.
Su on Wednesday openly admitted his “former concerns” about Tsai, but said those concerns have now been addressed.
Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), a former premier and a senior official in Tsai’s election campaign office, said Tsai is indeed an academic, adding that since she took over the party she has led it to victory in every election and that her challenge to the KMT’s Ma is so strong that “I believe she will become a good national leader.”
Another striking leak involved Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who was quoted in a cable as accusing Ma of incompetency and Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) of corruption.
Asked for comments by the press on Wednesday, Wang said Ma is a competent leader and Wu is a clean politician, adding that the leaks on the Internet were just rumors.
Wu, meanwhile, was incredulous, saying Wang “could not possibly” have made such an “unexpected and outrageous” remark about him.
Some other disclosures by WikiLeaks about politics include Ma telling Young that his information showed that Hsieh, his rival in the 2008 presidential election, had sent “secret envoys” to China to ensure that Hsieh was seen as different from Chen, whose pro-independence stance had angered China.
The US diplomats sending the cable to Washington made a special note on this: “Not heard before.”
Hsieh cleared himself on Wednesday, saying that the note itself indicated that he had never sent any secret envoys to China. Hsieh accused Ma of informing on him, tipping him off to foreigners — a practice that amounted to an international scandal for which Ma could be prosecuted.
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