The National Development Fund (NDF) did not have three board members and one supervisor at Yu Chang Biologics Co (宇昌生技股份有限公司) when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was company chairperson, contradicting claims made by the DPP, Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) said yesterday after releasing four documents related to the formation of the company.
“These documents prove that the seats obtained by the NDF did not reflect its share of investment in Yu Chang and they confirm that the DPP’s claims are wrong,” Liu, who is the current convener of the fund, told a press conference.
On Friday, Liu said the fund, which held a 40 percent stake in Yu Chang — now known as TaiMed Biologics Inc (中裕新藥股份有限公司) — only obtained one seat as a board member in addition to one non-voting supervisor position — Academia Sinica president Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) and then-Council for Economic Planning and Development chairperson Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) — following the company’s first shareholder meeting. The meeting was chaired by Tsai on Sept. 3, 2007.
However, based on a plan made on Aug. 31, 2007, the fund should have had three seats on the company’s eight-seat board Liu said.
DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said on Saturday that from the time the company was created, the fund had always held three director spots and one supervisor position.
The DPP then filed a lawsuit against Liu, saying she was spreading rumors and false statements for the purpose of either getting a candidate elected or impeding another’s election chances. It was the second lawsuit the party has filed against Liu over the Yu Chang case.
However, Liu said the documents released yesterday confirmed that the question she raised on Friday was legitimate and that the DPP had provided “incorrect” information to the public.
“The DPP should admit that its lawsuit against me is malicious,” Liu said.
Liu said, following a request by the fund, scientists David Ho (何大一) and Chen Lan-bo (陳良博) were elected as the fund’s representatives on the Yu Chang board on Sep. 29, 2007, but that Ho eventually resigned his seat, bringing the number of board members from the fund to less than four.
“Why did the NDF give up its own rights in the Yu Chang case?” she asked.
Liu said she would keep raising questions about the case until Tsai and the DPP properly answer the ones she has already asked.
In response, Tsai’s campaign spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said that while Liu had submitted “new questions,” there was no substantial context to them.
“We don’t think it is necessary to respond to her questions again since we have detailed our explanation to all the questions she has posed,” Hsu said.
Three board members and a supervisor were allocated to represent the fund, Hsu said, but Chen and Ho — who are US citizens — were not officially on the board until they finalized the necessary paperwork in October 2007.
Tsai, who was on a campaign trip in the south yesterday, said in Pingtung County that Liu’s comments and behavior have been “a little bit out of control and unreasonable.”
“The entire process of the formation of Yu Chang is transparent and well-documented and all the related information can be found in the government archives,” Tsai said
“Minister Liu also said she did not think it was a scandal, but now she is coming up with all these questions … I do think President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) owes the public an apology when a government official sets a bad example by crossing the line of neutrality and failing to recognize his or her duty,” Tsai added.
On Liu’s questioning of her qualifications as chairperson of a biotechnology company, saying she could not be compared with Morris Chang (張忠謀) in the semiconductor industry or Steve Chan (詹啟賢) in the biotech industry, Tsai said she joined the company to try to help contribute to a strategically important industry and never saw herself as having the same status as Morris Chang.
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