Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Tainan City Councilor Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), who is under investigation over allegations he instigated an incident last week that saw Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) fall over, said yesterday he had been the victim of an assault by pro-China gangsters.
Zhang was allegedly manhandled by Wang and a group of pro-independence supporters during a private visit to the Confucius Temple in Tainan City last Tuesday.
Zhang fell to the ground during the commotion.
During a press conference yesterday, Wang said his office in Tainan was ransacked on Thursday, and later a man he suspected of being a gangster, Huang Ju-yi (黃如意), and his friends came to his office, asking Wang to apologize to Zhang, saying that some people from China were offering money to people willing to hurt him if he did not.
REPORTERS
Wang said that later in the afternoon he met Huang and his friends again in a building in Taipei, where two reporters from cable channel CTI were also present.
“A gangster told me ‘you had better offer an apology to the camera, or I could kill you with one shot,’” Wang said.
Wang said he also received an anonymous telephone call saying there were people who were willing to pay for Wang to run an apology in the national press.
According to the CTI footage, Huang sat by Wang on the sofa, saying “Zhang Mingqing is my friend. Wang Ting-yu is my younger brother. Pushing Zhang was not done to attract attention for his bid for Tainan mayor, but to defend Taiwan.”
Huang then pounded Wang on the chest twice, saying “there is no one in Taiwan who can touch him, only me, I represent Wang in his apology to Zhang.”
Wang, meanwhile was silent and appeared embarrassed in the footage.
Wang said he was scared that he would be hurt, and “the four hours there were torture.”
THREAT
The threat seemed to come from China, he said.
Wang said he had met Huang three times before, but that he did not know him well.
Wang made a statement to police about the incident last night.
Earlier, Kao Cheng-sheng (高政昇), deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, said: “When we talked to him on Oct. 26, he said he had promised his friends that he would not report this to the police. When we talked to him yesterday, he said: No comment.’ Today he just said: ‘I’m busy.’”
Kao said that Huang finished making a statement at the Taipei City Police Department at about 11pm on Monday, but Wang had refused to report to the police and finish his statement.
In addition to Huang, Kao said police had interviewed several other people who were present at the scene. But their statements did not match the story Wang had told during his press conference.
“We need [Wang] to tell us what happened,” Kao said.
Meanwhile, Kao said police had submitted the case to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation.
Prosecutor Deng Ding-chiang (鄧定強), who is in charge of the investigation, said he would summon Wang, Huang and other witnesses in the near future.
“Huang told police that Wang visited him on that day because they are old friends. He said he did not do the things Wang has accused him of,” Deng said.
Huang was detained in Kinmen yesterday as he attempted to board a ferry bound for Xiamen, Fujian Province. Huang was stopped by immigration officers, who would not allow him to board the ferry. He was forced to fly back to Taiwan instead.
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