The Control Yuan task force investigating the financial scandal surrounding independent presidential candidate James Soong (
"In order to assure financial order and to protect the privacy of customers, during the three-and-a-half hour meeting, we [the members of the Control Yuan] focused our questioning on leaks of [financial] information," said Lee Shen-yi (
In addition to questioning financial authorities, the Control Yuan yesterday also called on financial institutions involved in handling the questionable funds, such as the Chung Hsing Finance Bills Corp (
After meeting with Chiu yesterday, task force members said that the Bank of Taiwan had not been involved in the leaking of any data, but that Chung Hsing Bills Finance still needed further investigation.
"Judging from the documents offered by KMT legislator at-large Yang Chi-hsiung (
Ma said the Control Yuan had already asked Chung Hsing Bills Finance to produce the original, unaltered form as soon as possible, to allow them to continue looking into transactions related to alleged slush funds allegedly set up by Soong and his sister-in-law, Chen Pi-yun (
"The task force has also demanded that the finance ministry enhance [banks'] security measures for business clients, and to carefully look into whether any officials were involved in divulging business secrets to the media," Ma said.
As to the task force's next step, Ma said they would first try to restore the transaction form through computer simulation, instead of summoning Soong.
"Until the test results come out, we still lack concrete evidence that would determine who revealed this information," said Chao Ron-jaw (
The Control Yuan task force was established on Dec. 31 last year, aiming to piece together an accurate picture of the transactions involved in the scandal that has continued to dog the former provincial governor.
In related news yesterday, Soong's lawyer, Huang Tong-shong (
The Presidential Office, however, returned the letter to Huang yesterday, saying that the money was not Lee's, therefore he could not accept it.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s