Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Ching-fang (
Taiwanese ought not be fooled by the double standards of KMT and PFP legislators, who are trying to divert attention from concern over Soong's integrity. On Sunday, Soong accused President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of giving US$1 million to the family of US President George W. Bush as a payoff for the high-level contacts he made during his recent stopover in New York.
We would ask Soong: where is your evidence of this bribe? Will you provide it? When?
Taiwanese still remember an accusation made by former New Party legislator Elmer Fung (
Soong's accusation is troubling because, as Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (
If KMT and PFP legislators really love Taiwan more than they do power, they should demand Soong produce evidence of the payoff. The recent theatrics of KMT and PFP lawmakers were merely the same tired attempts to divert media and public attention.
Soong has denounced the VCD entitled Special Report which lampooned him as "low-class," and announced it to be an act of campaign muckraking by President Chen. We hope that Soong will disclose whatever evidence he has to back up this and every other one of his accusations so that the public might have the opportunity to bring the president to task if he was involved in any such wrongdoing.
If not, then the only reasonable deduction that could be made is that Soong is a liar, and that his cycle of lies may cost him dearly in next year's election.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
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