The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said that a probe into former deputy council minister Chang Hsien-yao’s (張顯耀) actions had been handed over to the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, but it refused to say what aspect of Chang’s work has been called into question and investigated in light of the council’s “suspicions.”
Chang later yesterday decried the council’s announcement as “a mafia-style hunt.”
Council spokeswoman Wu Mei-hung (吳美紅) told a news conference in Taipei that the Investigation Bureau has secured “a lot of information” and had decided, after coordinating with the council, to take the case.
Photo: Courtesy of TVBS
Wu said the decision was made because “the suspicions about Chang’s work partially involve national security,” adding that the council would “cooperate with the bureau on the investigation.”
Asked whether the bureau has already visited the council’s office to perform a search, Wu said no.
However, “[Mainland Affairs Council Minister] Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) and [Investigation Bureau Director-General] Wang Chung-yi (汪忠一) have talked over the telephone,” Wu said.
Photo: CNA
Wu declined to categorize the seriousness of Chang’s alleged violations of national security, emphasizing that his case has been handed over to the bureau and it would be up to bureau officials to report on the investigation.
Later in the day, Chang took part in a political talk show on cable TV network TVBS — scheduled to be broadcast at 10pm — in which he tearfully said that he had not failed the nation or President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
“I am very grateful to the president, but Mr President, you have been given information that is contrary to the facts,” he said.
Chang added he has made his “preparations” and “written relevant information in [my] will.”
“I know too many things and I considered some of them inappropriate. I made suggestions. Maybe my straightforward suggestions or my objections to certain matters have offended some people,” he said.
“This kind of hunt is like the mafia crushingly hunting down a traitor. I am deeply chilled by the act,” Chang told the talk show host.
The council and Chang have traded claims since the Cabinet announced on Saturday last week that Chang had resigned as the council’s principal deputy minister for “family reasons” and his position would be filled by council Deputy Minister Lin Chu-chia (林祖嘉).
Chang on Sunday night released a statement suggesting that he had been asked to step down.
On Monday morning, the council held a news conference, where Wu said the council had made the request that Chang leave because of “suspicions about his work.”
She said the council had been trying to protect Chang when it issued its statement on Saturday.
Following the council’s news conference, Chang released another statement on Monday at noon, saying that he “followed the instructions of the president, the National Security Council’s secretary-general and [the Mainland Affairs] Council’s minister” all throughout his work for the council.
‘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