The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said it planned to continue its examination of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) alleged illegal involvement with Yu Chang Biologics Co (宇昌生技股份有限公司). KMT officials denied plans to stop looking into the case, although other party lawmakers expressed concern that such a course of action could backfire ahead of next month’s elections.
KMT Culture and Communication Committee Chairman Chuang Po-chun (莊伯仲) said efforts would continue to uncover the truth behind the alleged investment deal.
“Tsai has failed to clearly explain whether there was any conflict of interest ... The KMT will continue to examine the case,” he said.
Chuang dismissed DPP allegations that the KMT was engaged in a smear campaign. He also criticized Tsai for trying to distract attention from the issue by focusing her comments on Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如), who Tsai said has lied about forging documents.
The case hit the headlines on Monday when Liu and the KMT accused Tsai of wrongdoing in connection with the biotech start-up while she was vice premier in 2007.
Liu displayed a document that she said had been drafted on March 31, 2007, to back up her claim. However, it later transpired that the document had been drafted on Aug. 19, 2007, at which time Tsai had already left her position as vice premier. The DPP accused Liu of fabricating the dates in an attempt to damage Tsai’s reputation.
In an election campaign meeting on Thursday, several KMT officials and legislators suggested the party stop challenging Tsai after what they described as serious “mistakes” by Liu.
Chuang said that although a proposal to stop probing the case had been made at the meeting, the KMT had no immediate plans to do so.
Several polls conducted by different media outlets showed support for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) slipped after the KMT attacked Tsai over the case.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), the KMT’s vice presidential candidate, said yesterday that “it is not necessary to focus too strenuously on this case.”
“We have learned from media polls that support for Ma has increased by two percentage points. Although he did not lose points, he did not score much,” Wu said.
He said the party suffered a setback “because of [Liu’s] small mistake.”
“The [Yu Chang] case should stop here. Now that the documents [related to investments made by state funds in Yu Chang] have been declassified ... people can judge for themselves,” he said. “It’s not necessary to use it as a campaign issue.”
“[In the Yu Chang case,] people will believe what they want to believe. The KMT should focus on its political achievements rather than on a single issue,” he said.
Wu indicated that there was a consensus within the party to drop the Yu Chang case.
However, KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) yesterday said: “I do not think it’s right to bury at sea what is right and what is wrong in the Yu Chang case just because of a mistake about the date.”
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS