Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) yesterday rebutted a report that Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has criminal connections, but confirmed that Wu took a trip with a group that included a paroled former gangster.
“It is true that the premier went to Bali [in Indonesia] with a number of people who care about the development of [Nantou County] during his legislative term last year,” Su said at the Executive Yuan.
“Members of the group might have included an ex-offender who has been rehabilitated, as alleged by the media, but there is no need for people to overinterpret [this],” Su said.
Su was responding to a story published in the issue of the Chinese-language Next Magazine that hit shelves yesterday. The story claims that Wu, his wife Tsai Ling-yi (蔡令怡), Nantou County Commissioner Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿) and Chiang Chin-liang (江欽良) — a former gangster on parole — visited the Indonesian island of Bali on Dec. 18 last year.
The story said Chiang was a powerful gangster in central Taiwan who has been involved in several cases of extortion and shootings.
“As a person with more than 30 years of experience in politics, how [Wu] handles his relationship [with Chiang] could withstand any measure of public scrutiny,” Su said.
Wu said yesterday that Chiang had repented and dedicated himself to charity work over the past decade, urging the public not to ostracize him.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS