`Taiwan's Watergate,' says Chen after wiretap found

DPP officials in Kaohsiung have suggested the KMT could be behind a wiretapping device found Monday night at presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) campaign office in the city.

Chen's campaign manager, Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), filed a complaint at the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office over the incident.

The device was found during an extensive search Monday, which was launched after campaign staff reported signs of wiretapping, including noises on the lines and sudden cut-offs.

Chen called the discovery "the Taiwan version of Watergate" and said he suspected the KMT was behind it.

The device was of a kind easily available on the market, but had been modified by an expert to transmit at a frequency different from other such devices, Chen said.

Chen said independent candidate James Soong's (宋楚瑜) camp was not likely to have been behind the wiretapping, given that Soong has been fighting an uphill publicity battle of his own since the recent revelations of his suspected financial misconduct.

The incident was consistent with a past pattern, Chen said, as the DPP's campaign offices had been wiretapped during the Kaohsiung mayoral elections in 1994 and 1998.

Hung Wan-lung (洪萬隆), a spokesman for KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan's (連戰) Kaohsiung headquarters, denounced the claims as "campaign trickery," saying it was unnecessary for the KMT to engage in what he called "underhanded tactics."

He called on Chen's campaign officials to "have more self respect," and to cease its attempts to smear the KMT.