Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien yesterday weighed in on former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) family amid controversy caused by a Control Yuan report that said that Lee was the illegitimate child of a Japanese man.
Wang said he was of the opinion that the identity of Lee’s father should be clarified because “there have been endless rumors” about it.
General Wego Chiang (蔣緯國) had been rumored not to be a biological son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) for several decades before the rumor was proved to be true, Wang said, adding that Wego Chiang “admitted the fact in his own book.”
“I didn’t mean to say anything [about Lee] when I mentioned [Wego Chiang],” Wang said.
Wang made the remarks in response to media queries about a Control Yuan report in which Shih Hsin University adjunct assistant professor Chi Chia-lin (戚嘉林) was quoted as saying: “It should be correct that [Lee] was an illegitimate son of a Japanese father.”
The report was issued by Control Yuan members Chou Yang-shan (周陽山) and Lee Ping-nan (李炳南), who investigated the preservation of documents related to the 228 Incident, an uprising sparked on Feb. 27, 1947, against the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
The Control Yuan removed the report from its Web site on Monday.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said the Control Yuan “should have better things to do than probe who Lee Teng-hui’s father was.”
If the Control Yuan deemed the issue as being in the public interest, it should probe President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) reported dual nationality and whether Wang holds People’s Republic of China citizenship because the public would also be interested in the truth about both rumors, DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said.
Wang has been a controversial Control Yuan president with his “inappropriate and ridiculous” comments, Pan said, adding that Wang has made the Control Yuan a circus since he took over as its head.
Wang became Control Yuan president in July 2008.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said that no one in the Control Yuan, including Wang, seemed to be doing what they are supposed to do and it was not surprising that many people have proposed shutting it down.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
RSS