Former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) indictment on corruption charges yesterday led political allies to react with both surprise and dismay, raising claims about political retribution against the outspoken critic of the current administration.
Prosecutors accuse the 88-year-old, still highly respected in government circles, and a former top aide of siphoning money from a secret diplomatic fund to help set up a private think tank during his presidency from 1988 to 2000.
The charges, announced by prosecutors in a high-profile morning press conference, come at a sensitive time. The presidential and legislative elections are seven months away and Lee is seen as a father figure to many in the pro-independence camp.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), which Lee helped to establish in 2000, immediately dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign designed to discredit the former president and his supporters.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was more cautious.
“The allegations show that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign must be in dire straits,” TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said. “It’s an obvious attempt to use the judiciary to incite political strife.”
Huang and DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the party’s presidential nominee, are expected to appear with Lee at a previously scheduled fundraiser tonight.
DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said the judiciary should demonstrate caution to avoid creating the impression that it is politically biased, given the current political environment. Chen also emphasized the DPP’s lack of involvement in the case.
Lee was the chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) at the time of the alleged offenses, as well as being elected president, Chen said.
“We hope the judiciary can take a consistent look at the past 50 years of KMT administration, all the way up to Lee, and determine whether all cases of potential misuses of secret government funds have been properly handled,” he said.
As the nation’s first democratically elected president, Lee counts as allies both pan-blue and pan-green politicians stretching from his time as an up-and-coming KMT official. His political stance gradually shifted toward pro-Taiwanese independence.
One sign of his widespread appeal was at a birthday celebration in January, when Lee welcomed Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and senior politicians from both the KMT and the DPP. Ma was the only key political figure left off the guest list.
DPP lawmakers were more outspoken about the case in the legislature.
DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) called it a sign of “selective processing” given that many other senior politicians have also faced allegations that they misused secret government funds.
“The courts are owned by the KMT, exemplified by the case we see here,” Gao said.
DPP caucus chief Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the court case could potentially affect the January elections and the DPP’s cooperation with the TSU, which identifies Lee as its spiritual leader.
However, KMT Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) urged the public to respect the judicial process.
“If the defendant is innocent, I’m sure the judiciary will clear his name,” he said.
Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) said the office would not comment on any ongoing cases.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH
FRUIT SPAT: The COA said China had not given evidence for halting wax and custard apple imports, adding that it would spend NT$1bn on promoting sales of the fruit Taipei threatened to take China to the WTO yesterday after Beijing said it would suspend wax apple and custard apple imports from Taiwan due to pest concerns. China’s customs administration earlier yesterday said it had repeatedly found pests called Planococcus minor, a type of mealybug, on wax and custard apples from Taiwan. It asked its Guangdong branch and all affiliated offices to stop clearing the products from today. China had acted unilaterally, without providing scientific evidence, Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) told a news conference, criticizing the announcement’s timing, as it came during the Mid-Autumn Festival, celebrated in Taiwan
ON ALERT: A woman who tested positive for COVID-19 while abroad last year tested negative twice in Taiwan before showing a positive result on Sunday, the center said The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported two locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, four imported cases and no deaths. The CECC meanwhile warned nearly 500 people to monitor their health after a woman tested postive. The center also reported that a previous local case — a female worker at Taoyuan International Airport Services (桃園航勤), who had the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 — likely contracted the disease from the same source as a previous imported case from Turkey. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the two local cases were reported in Taipei, and are a
The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense recommended that consumers avoid buying Chinese mobile phones and advised people to throw away the ones they have now after a government report found the devices had built-in censorship capabilities. Flagship phones sold in Europe by China’s smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp (小米) have a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as “Free Tibet,” “Long live Taiwan independence” or “democracy movement,” Lithuania’s state-run cybersecurity body said on Tuesday. The capability in Xiaomi’s Mi 10T 5G phone software had been turned off for the “European Union region,” but can be turned on remotely at any time,
CLOSED DOORS? The new US rules, which are to be implemented in November, have sparked concern in Taiwan, given its low fully vaccinated coverage rate The US plans to allow entry to most foreign air travelers as long as they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — while adding a testing requirement for unvaccinated Americans and barring entry for foreigners who have not received shots. The measures announced on Monday by the White House mark the most sweeping change to US travel policies in months, and widen the gap in rules between vaccinated people — who would see restrictions relaxed — and unvaccinated people. The new rules would replace existing bans on foreigners’ travel to the US from certain regions, including Europe. While the move would open the
RSS