A recent investigation into allegations of bribery against the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Taichung mayoral candidate, Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), has DPP officials questioning whether it was politically motivated.
“This issue doesn’t look like it has anything to do with bribery — yet they are [wasting] the resources of police and prosecutors,” DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, referring to the event in which Su, while meeting with the coach and players from Shi Yuan Senior High School hours before they left for the World Junior Baseball Championships in the US last month, gave the group a NT$20,000 donation and promised them a dinner when they came back.
“They shouldn’t act rashly on this, as it could have important implications for the upcoming elections,” Tsai said.
Team coach Huang Wu-hsiung (黃武雄) was questioned by prosecutors last week for accepting Su’s donation on behalf of the team.
Su, a former minister of the interior, said he only wanted to encourage the players and give them some financial support before they left. The check came from a group of team supporters who had asked Su to present it on its behalf, he said.
“All I did was … represent this group of supporters to encourage our aspiring national athletes, but if the prosecutors should be questioning anybody, it should be me and not the coach,” Su said.
He also asked why his support for the team before their departure was questioned, but it was fine when his opponent, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), treated the entire team to a lavish dinner after they won the title.
“It almost seems like it’s okay when they try ‘to add flowers to the brocade,’ but I have problems when I try ‘to give a gift of charcoal in snowy weather,’” Su said.
Ministry of Justice regulations on election bribery state that gifts by candidates should be kept under NT$30. However, in revisions published last September, the ministry said cash or gifts given for activities, including temple events, weddings and other “cultural events,” should be exempted.
Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正), executive director at the Judicial Reform Foundation, said since Su was not an official candidate yet — registration for the elections begins later this month — the regulations shouldn’t applys.
“Based on this fact alone, the investigation is completely groundless,” he said. “Besides, when we talk about bribery, it’s clearly aimed at money that influences voting behavior — something that is missing from the picture when we consider that the players are high school students.”
“What’s next? Are we going to start investigating politicians who give donations at temples or red envelopes at weddings?” he said.
According to the Taichung District Prosecutors Office, the investigation started after it received a public complaint about the gift.
At a separate setting, when asked for comment yesterday, Hu said there was nothing wrong about him in his capacity as the city mayor treating the team to a meal to celebrate its victory.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
UNITED: The other candidates congratulated Cheng on her win, saying they hoped the new chair could bring the party to victory in the elections next year and in 2028 Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday won the party’s chair election with 65,122 votes, or 50.15 percent of the votes. It was the first time Cheng, 55, ran for the top KMT post, and she is the second woman to hold the post of chair, following Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who served from 2016 to 2017. Cheng is to succeed incumbent Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Nov. 1 for a four-year term. Cheng said she has spoken with the other five candidates and pledged to maintain party unity, adding that the party would aim to win the elections next year and
RSS