Former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) yesterday filed a defamation lawsuit against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chung Hsiao-ping (鐘小平) over accusations concerning Lien’s problematic investments when serving as the company’s chairman.
Chung, who is seeking the KMT’s nomination for the Taipei mayoral election, made the accusations during a political talk show on Thursday night, saying that the company had suffered a financial loss of more than NT$270 million (US$ 8.9 million) during Lien’s term because of Lien’s reinvestment of company money in foreign funds in 2008.
Lien yesterday rejected the accusations in a written statement and filed the lawsuit in the afternoon against Chung, asking for NT$5 million in compensation and demanding that the councilor issue apology statements in seven major local newspapers.
“It’s a painful decision to file a lawsuit against a party member,” Lien said, adding that Chung had obtained related documents from the company last year on the reinvestments, which showed that the company did not purchase any foreign funds during his term.
Lien, son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), is seen as the most competitive Taipei mayoral hopeful in the pan-blue camp. Accusations regarding his financial situation and past experiences have begun to emerge recently. He has not announced his election bid.
Chung yesterday said that he was “stating the truth” during the political talk show and that his comments were made with the support of credible documents.
“I have announced that I will run in the Taipei mayoral election, and Sean Lien could be unhappy about my move,” he said.
If Lien aimed to represent the KMT in the Taipei mayoral election, he should be forming a campaign team, not a team of lawyers, he added.
Chung is one of the KMT politicians who have join the mayoral race along with legislators Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and Taipei City councilors Yang Shi-chiu (楊實秋) and Chin Hui-chu (秦慧珠).
Although the young Lien remained tight-lipped about his decision on the race, support for him has been high. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who has maintained close relations with the Lien family, also appeared to be supportive of Sean Lien’s election bid, although he has denied having any successor in mind.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
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