Officials yesterday defended Vice President Annette Lu (
Next questioned the legitimacy of the prize as well as what it described as the wrongdoings of the major organizers.
The report said although WPPAC, together with its related agencies such as the World Peace Corps Academy and the World Peace Corps Mission, have registered with the US government, the authority of the peace prize was marred by the organization's history and the reputations of its founders.
For instance, the world peace prize, which came into being in 1990, was not granted on a regular basis, with the award going to four winners in 1995, two in 1996 and 1997 respectively, and none in 1991 to 1994, 1998 and 1999.
Controversy over the qualifications of previous prize winners also triggered misgivings on the part of critics, the report said.
According to related materials, in 1995 the prize was awarded to Han Min-su, an evangelist from South Korea, who co-founded the World Peace Corps Mission with late US congressman Robert Leggett in 1989.
The organization also crowned the controversial Cambodian leader Hun Sen in 1996, and even granted the prize to the repressive late South Korean dictator Syngman Rhee in 1996, some 30 years after Rhee passed away, the report argued.
Based on a report by AFP correspondent Michael Field, the magazine reported what it termed a hoax believed to be introduced by Han after the WPPAC awarded the world peace prize to the Tongan King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV in 1996.
Han then introduced some Koreans to sign a contract with the Tongan government in order to secure rights to explore Tonga for natural gas and to set up a nuclear waste facility, which then evaporated into thin air, the report said.
"The organization that granted Lu the World Peace Prize was just like adding flowers to brocade (
"The organization didn't ask for a single penny," Chang said.
Chang also said the foreign ministry has just played a subsidiary role throughout the process and hasn't taken the initiative in lobbying the group to give Lu the award.
Chang's comments were made in the wake of the report in the latest issue of Next which hit news stands yesterday.
In response to the Next article, the Vice President's Office issued a press release yesterday, saying the report has "focussed intense attention on the vice president." The press release also states that Lu has requested the award's sponsors to look into Next's allegations.
"We've been conducting an investigation into the validity of the report, and will hold a press conference to explain the whole episode soon," a staffer at Lu's office told the Taipei Times.
The press release said the natural gas episode in Tonga "was purely a business transaction pertaining to an individual that seemed unrelated to the award council."
Chang said Taiwan's de facto embassy in Washington confirmed that the WPPAC had registered with the US government and its chief judge, Lester Wolff, as well as the former chairman of the US House Asian Affairs Committee.
"The importance of these prizes indeed varies. One can't expect each of these awards to be as grand as the Nobel Peace Prize," Chang added.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS