Taitung County Commissioner Kuang Li-chen (鄺麗貞), who courted controversy by embarking on a 13-day inspection trip to Europe as a typhoon approached Taiwan, was named as an interested party after being questioned by Taitung prosecutors yesterday afternoon.
Taitung Prosecutor Lin Chia-hung (林嘉宏) released Kuang without bail after questioning her for more than four hours, CNA reported.
Kuang agreed to meet with prosecutors at 2pm, the report said, adding that she requested the presence of a lawyer two hours later.
The 11 Taitung County Government officials who traveled with Kuang and who were taken in for questioning by prosecutors after they returned to Taitung on Monday had been released, Taitung Chief Prosecutor Dai Wen-liang (戴文亮) said, adding that they had been “invited” to explain the nature of their trip to prosecutors before being allowed to go home at 1am yesterday.
Kuang and the others were questioned following speculation that they had wasted public money on the trip and had used it for sightseeing rather than official county business.
“We needed them to prove to us that the trip was really for business as they claimed and that no public funds were used for personal purposes,” Dai said.
Kuang held a press conference at 8:10pm after leaving the prosecutor’s office.
Joined by senior county government officials, Kuang bowed and apologized to Taitung residents for the third time.
Kuang said she took the initiative to talk to prosecutors yesterday afternoon after sleeping until noon.
She admitted she had learned about prosecutors questioning other officials before she went to bed on Monday night, but said she needed to take a rest before she could face anyone.
What she did during her trip to Europe would stand up to scrutiny, she said
She dismissed speculation that she had invited township mayors to join the trip because of next year’s city and county elections.
She said the county government’s budget for government staffers’ inspection trips abroad had been decreasing since she assumed office two years ago, adding that the county government had only spent about NT$865,000 (US$28,000) covering her inspection trips over the past two years.
She said she took eight inspection trips during the past two years because “Taitung was in urgent need of the energy to promote itself.”
She said she would attend the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Integrity Committee meeting today and was confident she would “live up to KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung’s [吳伯雄] expectations.”
Asked if she was worried about her chances of being re-elected next year, Kuang said she fully respected the choice of Taitung residents.
Earlier yesterday, Taitung County Government Secretary-General Wu You-chin (吳有進) told reporters that Kuang had called in the morning to ask for leave.
Wu was tight-lipped when asked about Kuang’s whereabouts, saying only she “had something she needed to take care of.”
He said he “could not bother Kuang” with questions regarding what she needed to deal with, adding it was unlikely she was trying to avoid the media.
Kuang disappeared after she was unable to fly back to Taitung because of heavy rain in the county on Monday afternoon.
Although media reported on Monday night that Kuang had planned to fly to Hualien before taking the train to Taitung, Kuang did not arrive at either Hualien Airport or Taitung Train Station later in the night.
Kuang
Continued from page 1
She made a short statement upon returning to Taiwan at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Monday morning, where she apologized to Taitung residents for failing to spend the night in the county when Typhoon Fung-wong hit the east coast.
But she also protested her innocence, saying that she had been promoting Taitung’s global visibility. Kuang issued a written statement yesterday, offering an apology to Taitung residents again, but emphasizing that her inspection trip to Europe last week yielded fruitful results. The county government delegation visited Germany to learn about the solar energy industry, the statement said.
“Li-chen believed that the high-tech industry, construction in rural villages and the solar energy industry in other countries was worth emulating,” the statement said. “Since Taitung County aims at developing tourism, [I] hope [Taitung] will benefit [from the trip] in terms of promoting cultural and art exchanges [with other countries], green and solar power industry. [I] also hope to connect Taitung to the world by inviting foreign students, groups and artists to stay in Taitung,” the statement said.
The Presidential Office yesterday sidestepped a request that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) apologize for endorsing Kuang during her election campaign.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that Ma endorsed Kuang in his capacity as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, adding that Ma requested all candidates to refrain from buying votes and taking bribes.
Instead of responding to the call for Ma’s apology, Wang said elected local chiefs are responsible to their electorate and subject to their supervision.
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
RSS