Former premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) was questioned yesterday as a witness over the kickback and murder scandal involving Taiwan's 1991 purchase of Lafayette-class frigates.
Siew issued a statement after the questioning stating that in 1990, as the then-minister of economic affairs, he had been invited to visit France. During the trip, Siew said, French officials expressed serious concern over a growing trade deficit between the two countries. Siew then suggested that France could narrow the deficit by agreeing to sell fighter jets and warships to Taiwan.
"Then-premier Hau Pei-tsun (
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
The government's original plan in 1988 was to purchase South Korean-made frigates, but it decided in 1990 to purchase the French-made Lafayette frigates instead.
Prosecutors are attempting to determine why the government changed its mind over the warship procurement.
A special prosecutorial panel investigating the high-profile scandal earlier this month subpoenaed former deputy chief of the general staff Hsia Tien (
Hsia, who accompanied Hau on a trip to France in 1989, filed a cable during their France visit on Hau's orders asking the navy to suspend the plan to procure the South Korean-made frigates.
The cable is believed to detail the government's about-face on the frigate procurement.
The subpoena of Siew and Hsia paved the way for Hau's questioning.
The special prosecutorial panel said it would summon Hau for questioning this week.
Prosecutors may subpoena other former policymakers involved in the Lafayette-class frigate procurement, including former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
Lee has previously said that he was not involved in the decision-making process over the warship procurement, and that he did not have the power to interfere with military affairs.
Lee assumed office in 1988, after former president Chiang Ching-kuo (
The special prosecutorial panel has scrutinized a large number of Swiss court files believed to be related to the kickback scandal.
They include information about 46 bank accounts in the name of Andrew Wang (
The files also include details on a number of previously unexposed overseas bank accounts related to the US$2.8 billion Lafayette deal, as well as information about account transactions.
Andrew Wang fled the country following the death of naval Captain Yin Ching-feng (
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,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘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
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
RSS