KMT denies author's allegation

A Taiwanese businessman claims that Lien Chan (連戰), as the KMT's candidate for the 2000 presidential election, asked Chinese officials to announce war games in the lead up to the poll to increase his chances of winning -- a charge the party denies.

Lin Chih-sheng (林志昇) makes the allegations in his new book, Escaping from Mainland China, which hit bookstore shelves yesterday.

Lin claims that Lien, now the KMT's chairman, had sent rep-resentatives to Hong Kong to ask Chinese officials to hold military exercises off the Fujian coast a few days before the election on March 18, 2000.

"What the book states is ridiculous," KMT spokesman Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) said yesterday. "We'll sue the author if he circulates the book.

Lin in his book writes that Lien's representative, Tsai Chih-hong (蔡志弘), who was then a deputy secretary-general in his presidential campaign, had made the trip to Hong Kong to ask Chinese officials for the favor.

But Beijing's representative, Hsing Yunming (邢運明), then the deputy director of the Central Committee's General Office in China, said the request couldn't be accommodated because there wasn't enough time to plan, according to the book.

"If the request was made one month earlier, we could have done it," Hsing is quoted as saying. "It's too late to announce a military exercise, but we could try other measures to assist Mr. Lien," he allegedly said.

Hsing made a counter-proposal, suggesting that Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) deliver a tough speech before the poll to warn Taiwanese voters.

In a speech that was widely seen on television in Taiwan on March 15, Zhu said: "Let me advise all these people in Taiwan: Do not just act on impulse at this juncture, which will decide the future course that China and Taiwan will follow. Otherwise, I'm afraid you won't get another opportunity to regret."

Ting Yuan-chao (丁遠超), director of Lien's office, angrily denied Lin's assertions and said the book should be considered a work of fiction.

"The book is meaningless. It just wants to make Lien look bad," Ting said. "The media should not trust this kind of false information at all."

But Lin was adamant that his account of events was accurate and vowed to release evidence to prove his claims should Lien persist with his denials.

He also said the purpose of his book was not political, but is meant as a warning to Taiwanese businessmen considering investing in China.

"I am not a politician and don't want to be involved in politics at all," Lin told the Taipei Times yesterday. "I don't want to make anybody look bad. This is not my concern. Lien should stop denying my account, otherwise, I will release more evidence to prove my story."

Lin refused to say what evidence he possessed to prove his claim, but noted it wasn't unusual for top government officials to send secret envoys to meet with Chinese officials.

For example, he said, Su Chih-cheng (蘇志誠) and Cheng Su-ming (鄭淑敏) represented former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in secret talks with representatives for China's President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) in Hong Kong.

"Su and Cheng denied the accusations at first, but the evidence proved otherwise," Lin said.

The businessman once ran four schools that he founded in Shanghai and Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. But he fled China after falling out with the Chengdu City government, which took over his schools and detained him in June.