A document cited by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) when it accused Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of improper involvement in a biotechnology company was altered twice with a “vicious motive” before it went public, the DPP said yesterday.
Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) on Dec. 12 disclosed a document dated March 31, 2007, which the KMT used to accuse Tsai of wrongdoing in the formation of Yu Chang Biologics Co (宇昌生技股份有限公司), now known as TaiMed Biologics Inc (中裕新藥股份有限公司), when Tsai served as vice premier.
Liu apologized the next day for “confusing the dates” of the document, which was actually from Aug. 19, 2007, but denied that she had forged the document.
DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) told a press conference yesterday that Liu and the KMT were suspected of not only altering the date on the document, but also erasing the marking tag of “Attachment No. 3” to cover up the fact that it was one of six attachments to that document.
Liu said her agency confused the date because the document’s Attachment No. 2 was missing, an excuse that Chen described as weak.
The minister — or the KMT — could have intentionally altered the date and removed the attachment marking on the document, which stated that Tsai would be one of Yu Chang’s core leaders, so people would assume Tsai had planned to make an improper profit when she was in government, Chen said.
Tsai served as vice premier from 2006 to 2007 and resigned on May 20, 2007, before being named as Yu Chang’s chairperson in August that year.
“What they did was simple. Whoever did this — Liu or the KMT ... took out Attachment No. 3 from the Aug. 19 document, removed the marking and said it was a March 31 presentation, so the public would believe that Tsai [was guilty of] improper conduct as vice premier,” Chen said. “We wonder who made the alterations. Was it Liu or the KMT legislative caucus?”
“The DPP strongly condemns the forgery,” Chen added , demanding that Liu disclose all six attachments of the Aug. 19 document and explain who altered the document, as well as when and where the document was forged.
Chen also urged the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigation Division (SID) and Prosecutor-General Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘) to disclose all the documents related to the so-called “Yu Chang case,” which had been seized by the SID, for the public to examine.
Chen reiterated that Tsai’s role in the case was clear — that she wanted to do her best to help with the development of Taiwan’s biotechnology industry and that she never imagined that she would be persuaded by scientists to serve as the company’s chair.
“Liu claimed that the case was complicated because she sees the world through stained glasses,” Chen said.
The evidence that the DPP has provided showed that this was a KMT smear campaign and there could be someone behind the scenes who manipulated the entire case in an effort to discredit Tsai’s presidential campaign, DPP spokesperson Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) added.
“Our question for Liu is a simple one: Why did she pull the attachment from the Aug. 19 document and change the date to March 31?” he said.
At a separate setting yesterday, KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) rebutted the DPP’s allegation, saying the KMT caucus did not alter the copy of the document provided by the CEPD in any way.
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