Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday dismissed a rumor alleging that she is trying to “annihilate” New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) potential presidential campaign two years in advance.
She also made remarks on what she described as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) traditional smear campaign tactics.
“[The rumor] is simply too dramatic,” Tsai said in response to a question from reporters in Chiayi County, where she attended a campaign rally for the seven-in-one elections in November.
Tsai, who agreed to work as campaign director for former premier Yu Shyi-kun’s (游錫堃) New Taipei City mayoral candidacy, was referring to a media report saying that she did so in order to present Chu with another roadblock before engaging in his widely expected run for the presidency.
Quoting unnamed DPP politicians, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday that Tsai was campaigning hard for Yu and hoped that Chu either edges or loses to Yu by a small margin, so that Chu — one of the strongest presidential hopefuls in the KMT — would lose his advantages over other contenders, including Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), and there would be infighting in the KMT.
The report also said that Tsai has mobilized “Friends of Tsai Ing-wen,” a grassroots organization, to campaign for Yu.
It added that Yu’s polling deficit against Chu could be overestimated, because the DPP’s vote share in the battleground constituency had never finished under 40 percent.
Tsai said she was only “returning a favor” to Yu, who served as her campaign director in the last New Taipei mayoral election, when Tsai secured 47 percent of the total votes, but lost to Chu by more than 100,000 votes.
Additionally, Tsai described the so-called “Yu Chang (宇昌) case” — which the KMT used to attack her integrity during the presidential campaign in 2011 — as “the worst example of how a ruling party sacrificed a strategically important sector for political gains.”
On Saturday, Academia Sinica member David Ho (何大一), a world-renowned AIDS specialist, told reporters that the success 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), showed that the so-called Yu Chang case was not a scandal.
TaiMed is currently listed at NT$160 on the over-the-counter GRETAI Securities Market (GTSM, 櫃檯買賣中心).
The KMT accused Tsai of corruption and manipulating investments by the National Development Fund in TaiMed when she was vice premier in 2007, leading to a series of investigations by the Control Yuan and the judiciary, but Tsai was cleared of any wrongdoing.
The biotechnology sector could become the pioneering sector for Taiwan at a time when the country is in need of improved industrial viability, and the government should help the sector develop rather than make it a sacrificial lamb for political competition and elections, Tsai said yesterday.
“During the previous presidential election, this administration had not only exploited the strategic industry as a tool of its campaign, but also smeared anyone who was involved in the development of the industry,” Tsai said.
“Hopefully, society would be reminded that the episode serves as the worst example for the nation, and things like this would never happen again,” she added.
‘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
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