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PFP denies Soong bribe claim

The PFP yesterday delivered a stern rebuke to the Central News Agency (CNA) after the agency reported on Saturday that the party's chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) took US$400 million in kickbacks over a warship purchase.

In 1991 Taiwan contracted to buy six Lafayette-class frigates from the French company Thomson CSF for US$2.8 billion.

Following the murder of navy captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓) in 1993, it was discovered that the frigate purchase involved huge bribes to officials in both Taiwan and China.

On Saturday, CNA, Taiwan's only national news agency, reported that France's former foreign minister, Roland Dumas, had revealed in an exclusive interview with a French daily newspaper Le Figaro that a "commission" of US$500 million was paid by the French over the Frigate purchase.

Of this US$100 million went to Chinese communist leaders. The other US$400 million was paid to the he secretary-general of Taiwan's then ruling party, the KMT.

Soong was secretary-general of the KMT from 1989 to 1993.

"Soong played no part at all in the Lafayette deal," said PFP spokesman Hwang Yih-jiau (黃義交) at a press conference held to address the issue yesterday.

"The CNA report has misled the public with its inaccurate information," Hwang said.

The director of the PFP's Center of Policy Research, Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), countered the report by pointing to a transcription of the interview which PFP had taken from the newspaper's Web site.

"In the interview, [Dumas] said only that France had gave a total amount of US$500 million to China and Taiwan," said Chang. "Nowhere in the interview did Dumas mention a word in relation to Soong."

On the part where the report said "US$400 million was paid to the secretary-general of Taiwan's then ruling party according to Dumas' book," Chang said that the reporter might have confused the French terms S?cr?tariat G?n?ral du Parti au Pouvoir as it is used on the book meaning "general secretariat of ruling party" with Setr?taire G?n?ral, which means "secretary-general."

"CNA should have gotten the facts straight before filing the report instead of issuing a report misleading the Taiwan public into thinking that Soong was involved in the deal," he said.

Singling out CNA Chairman Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平) at the press conference, deputy convener of the PFP legislative caucus Chiu Yi (邱毅) questioned there might be political motives behind the CNA story.

Chiu noted Su's former posts as director-general of the Government Information Office under the DPP administration and as chief editorial writer at the pro-independence Taiwan Daily News.

Chang said that, since Dumas had already clearly stated a sum of US$400 million was paid to Taiwan, the task on hand now was to figure out where that money went.

"If the French can get hold of the relevant custom documents in relation to the US$400 million, Taiwan can too if it really tries," said Chang. "I don't think it is that hard for the truth to come to light if the government goes all in investigating this matter."

Chiu then questioned the lack of progress in the DPP-led government's investigation of the Lafayette case.

"Why is that the French authorities can find information in relation to the Lafayette deal yet those of Taiwan can make no breakthrough in all this time?" Chiu said, adding that the DPP administration's reluctance in the case might be a way to protect former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who was in office when the Lafayette deal took place.

The TSU's Department of Culture and Information chief Hsiao Kwan-yu (蕭貫譽) said yesterday that Chiu's comments were a crude attempt to drag Lee into the case in order so to obscure the focus of the CNA report.

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