The Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) plan to replace one of its legislators-at-large with a China-based Taiwanese businessman has raised questions about a possible payoff.
KMT Legislator Joanna Lei (
She said the party wanted a seat for Huang Liang-hua (黃良華), the former head of an association for Taiwanese with investments in China, in order to win votes from China-based businesspeople.
Lei said she had no idea how much money was exchanged in the deal and who got what, but she did know there had been "some give-and-take involved." She did not elaborate.
Both Huang Teh-fu and Tsao were unavailable for comment yesterday.
KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yi (
He said many China-based businesspeople wanted their voices to be heard in the legislature, but that "no legislators-at-large were asked to sell their seats for NT$10 million."
Wu said Legislator Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), a KMT vice chairman, was willing to give up his at-large seat, but the party rejected his offer because of "his solid reputation."
Tsao wanted to resign because his temporary leave of absence from National Taiwan University was about to expire, Wu said.
Chiang said yesterday that it had been his idea to make Huang Liang-hua a legislator-at-large and the substitution was an answer to a long-time plea by China-based businesspeople for a lawmaker to represent them.
"I planned to quit, but Tsao wanted to join [KMT presidential candidate] Ma Ying-jeou's (
He said KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (
Meanwhile, the DPP caucus said it would sue Tsao and the KMT over the allegation that Tsao received NT$10 million to give up his seat.
DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
RSS