President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will attend a hearing at the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office next Wednesday to serve as a witness in a vote-buying investigation.
"President Chen has received the subpoena, which asks the president to attend the closed-door interrogation on Jan. 14 at 9:30am," Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) said.
"The president immediately decided to cancel all activities in his original schedule for that day and will be present at the interrogation," Huang said.
On Tuesday, Hualien prosecutor Lee Tzu-chun (李子春) issued a subpoena to Chen in the president's capacity as the DPP chairman, ordering him to assist in the investigation into a campaign promise made by the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP's) candidate for the Hualien County commissioner by-election You Ying-lung (游盈隆).
You said on July 27 last year that the DPP would provide a monthly stipend to Aboriginal communities leaders if he won the election.
"Though President Chen only served as a campaigner and had no connection to any particular campaign promise, he will do what he is asked of by the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office," Huang said.
Huang also read a statement from the Presidential Office stating that during the by-election Chen had carried out his presidential duties in the correct and proper manner.
The summons is the first ever delivered to a head of state in Taiwan.
"Since the subpoena ... is a legitimate procedure, President Chen, who is a firm advocate of judicial reform, is willing to show his respect to the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office," Presidential Office Secretary General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) said at a press conference.
"We respect the legal system and will honor our obligation to abide by the rules," Chiou said. "But this do not mean we see the subpoena as a reasonable move [by the prosecutors' office."]
Chiou refused to comment on whether the subpoena would affect the presidential election campaign, saying that such an unexpected development was not on the DPP's campaign schedule and therefore it was difficult to make an evaluation.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS