According to a CNA report, France's former foreign minister, Roland Dumas, revealed yesterday in an exclusive interview with Le Figaro, a daily newspaper, that a commission of US$500 million was paid by France in 1991 when six Lafayette-class frigates were sold to Taiwan.
The sum was approved by former president Francois Mitterand, and others including the premier and the finance and budget ministers all knew of the deal.
Of the total, US$400 million was paid to the secretary-general of Taiwan's then ruling party, the KMT, while US$100 million went to the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee in Beijing.
Though Dumas did not name the secretary-general concerned, James Soong (宋楚瑜), now PFP chairman, served as KMT secretary-general from 1989 to 1993.
On Jan. 24, Dumas won a verdict of not guilty in Paris' appeals court, overturning a previous conviction for embezzling from the public treasury that stemmed from the Lafayette case.
On May 31 last year he was sentenced to six months in prison. The publication of yesterday's interview was timed to coincide with the release of Dumas' new book Evidence, Evidence.
In his 430-page book, Dumas does not bring forward any new evidence, but he does give a more detailed explanation of the US$500 million commission that was revealed by Le Figaro in March 2001.
Dumas says that Thomson CSF, the company that sold the frigates, provided the French government with all documents regarding the distribution of commission payments in the summer of 1992, and that the amount totalled US$500 million.
Dumas said that during a dinner on March 18, 1997, he received information from the then Budget Minister Michel Charasse.
Charasse said that, according to customs documents, US$400 million of the commission payments went to the secretary-general of Taiwan's ruling party, and US$100 million went to the central leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
At that time, he was also told another piece of classified information, namely that "the president approved that I should request that Thomson pay this commission to the Chinese and Taiwanese authorities."
In response to Duma's allegation, PFP spokesman Hsieh Kong-ping (謝公秉) said yesterday that the party's chairman Soong denied any role in the Lafayette deal.
Hsieh said that during the 2000 presidential campaign, Soong was the first presidential candidate to call for further investigation of the scandal in order to dig out the truth.
Hsieh added that, since Dumas might not understand Taiwan's political system, whether what Dumas referred to was the ruling party or the government needed to be clarified.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS