Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice presidential candidate Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) yesterday confirmed that he had secretly met American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt this month, but declined to comment on claims he had warned Burghardt that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was planning destabilizing election tactics.
"I met Burghardt as a good friend, not as a vice presidential candidate. Out of respect for him, I will not reveal [the contents of] our conversation," Siew said in Hsinchu when approached for comment.
Burghardt arrived in Taipei on Dec. 8 for a four-day visit.
He said at the time that the objective of his visit was to emphasize the US government's stance on the government-backed UN referendum.
During his stay, aside from meeting President Chen Shui-bian (
The meeting between Siew and Burghardt, however, was not disclosed until DPP Legislator Sandy Yen (
Yen claimed that Siew told Burghardt that the DPP, in order to win the election, was prepared to stage attempted assassinations or incidents to exacerbate cross-strait tensions.
Yen said Siew had told the AIT chairman that the KMT insisted on adopting the two-step voting procedure because it wanted to hinder the DPP's UN referendum.
Siew yesterday did not confirm whether he had told Burghardt that the DPP could stage an incident to manipulate voters, but said only that many people had expressed such concerns.
He rebutted claims that he had lambasted the DPP in his meeting with the AIT chairman.
"All my efforts are done with the intention of expanding Taiwan's international space and protecting national interests. It's not fair to say I insulted the government," he said.
On two-step voting, Siew said only that the procedure gave voters the option of not accepting a referendum ballot, which would lower the voting rate and make it difficult for the referendum to draw enough votes for the results to be valid.
The KMT has sponsored a referendum on returning to the UN as the Republic of China or using any other name deemed appropriate. Siew said the KMT version was intended to counter the government's referendum.
Ma yesterday declined to comment on Siew's private meeting with Burghardt, saying only that members of his campaign were being careful and were concerned the DPP would stage an incident.
Ma vowed to put an end to the "green terror" if elected.
"We hope that we can detect any [inappropriate election] tactics and prevent them from influencing the elections," Ma said during a visit to Taichung County.
KMT Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) yesterday defended the party's efforts to push for re-entry into the UN and other international bodies and said the KMT supported two-step voting because it was easier than one-step voting.
Su further accused Yen and the DPP of misusing national security resources to secure intelligence about Siew and Burghardt's meeting.
Su called on Yen to make public the sources of her information.
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