US Representative Steven Chabot, the chairman of the US House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, on Tuesday told a Taiwanese delegation in Washington that he felt that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) should be granted medical parole.
Chabot, a long-time Taiwan supporter, made the comments when the delegation, led by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), visited him and Representative Grace Meng (孟昭文) on Capitol Hill a day after US President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
Accompanying Wang was Taiwan’s Representative to the US King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) and KMT legislators Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) and Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆). Former Presidential Office secretary-general Mark Chen (陳唐山) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) represented the DPP in the group.
Wang said he relayed Chabot’s comments to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in a meeting after returning to Taiwan, adding that he also told Ma about former vice president Annette Lu’s (呂秀蓮) concerns following her visit to see Chen Shui-bian on Monday.
Ma would make an appropriate and humane decision on the matter within the bounds of the law, Wang said, stressing that Taiwan is governed by the rule of law.
Chiang said that the president would make sure to observe all relevant legal procedures when addressing the issue.
Chabot was told that despite not having been paroled, Chen Shui-bian is receiving medical attention and Ma shared others’ concerns about the jailed president’s deteriorating health.
Lee said that Chabot held Chen Shui-bian in high regard, citing as evidence a photo of Chabot and the former president shaking hands that sits beside the door of Chabot’s office. The representative believes that Chen Shui-bian had suffered enough, Lee added.
Lee said that he during a visit last week, he had seen Chen Shui-bian’s hands shaking with palsy and signs of muscular dystrophy in his right leg.
Mark Chen also said that Chen Shui-bian was exhibiting signs of Parkinson’s disease, adding that it would be damaging for Taiwan if one of its democratically elected presidents were to die in jail.
“We hope the Ma administration will follow the people’s wishes and release Chen Shui-bian immediately,” he added. “Enough is enough.”
The Ministry of Justice says that Chen Shui-bian is receiving adequate care, adding that he is not exhibiting symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
Meanwhile, Mark Chen said Taiwan could learn from the attendance of former US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton at Obama’s inauguaration.
Three Taiwanese presidents, including Ma, are still alive, and he could learn a lot about how to resolve the challenges facing him and even help ameliorate bipartisan divisions if he talked with former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian, Mark Chen said.
However, Mark Chen added that this opportunity could not be taken because Lee Teng-hui has been indicted by the Ma administration on corruption charges and Chen Shui-bian is serving an 18-and-a-half-year sentence on similar charges.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS