Taipei prosecutors said yesterday they would launch an investigation following allegations by Hong Kong movie star Jimmy Wang (王羽) that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had asked him to assassinate former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良).
"Prosecutors could interview Jimmy Wang and other individuals involved to learn more about the matter," Taipei District Prosecutors Office spokesman Lin Jinn-tsun (林錦村) told reporters yesterday, describing the case as an attempted homicide.
He said that prosecutors could bring Wang in for questioning if it were determined that he was involved in the case.
Quoting reports by the media, Lin said that a Taiwanese weapons dealer may also have some information about the matter and that prosecutors would attempt to get in touch with him.
In an interview published on Monday, Wang told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper) that the KMT had asked him to assassinate Hsu, who was living in the US at the time.
Hsu fled to the US in 1979 during a security crackdown on Taiwanese independence advocates and lived there for 10 years.
He now lives in Taiwan.
The report quoted Wang as saying that then-director of the KMT's Mainland Affairs Department Bai Wan-hsiung (白萬祥) had contacted him to do the job.
It said Wang did not accept the job because Bai had not given him a written contract.
Bai died three years ago.
Wang issued a statement last night confirming the report.
Responding to the prosecutors' statement that he might be listed as a suspect, Wang said that as a long-term resident of Taiwan, he was willing to do what the law requires.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese