Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui (郭文貴) yesterday said that China had monitored the private lives of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his two daughters, putting pressure on Ma to submit to Beijing’s every wish, including imprisoning former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Guo, a controversial real-estate developer, on Monday uploaded a video to YouTube and Facebook in which he discussed a meeting he said he had in 2008 with an unnamed Chinese who was then a high-ranking officer in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Political Department.
Ma won his first term as president that year.
Photo: Reuters
Guo said he asked the official whether China would be able to “rein Ma in,” to which the official replied: “No doubt we can control him. He will listen to us 100 percent.”
When asked to expound on China’s “control” over Ma, Guo quoted the official as saying: “Ma will redefine the [so-called] 1992 consensus during his term and develop closer economic ties between Taiwan and China. Our economic carrots will definitely take effect.”
Ma would definitely imprison Chen on Beijing’s instruction, which was China’s move to “intimidate” the Democratic Progressive Party, Guo quoted the official as saying.
“We have monitored Ma’s private life and his two daughters for many years,” the official added. “He would not say a word. He will do whatever we want him to do.”
“His every move is under our eyes and so are his two daughters,” the official said.
When asked what Beijing would do if Ma refused to cooperate, Guo said the official told him that Ma would not refuse, as Beijing had a plan in store that would “destroy” Ma.
Guo said that in retrospect, he realized that everything the official said had played out during Ma’s time in office, citing his “audacious” policies to increase economic ties with China and his “radical” imprisonment of Chen.
“I welcome Ma to press charges against me. I would be happy to testify in a Taiwanese court of law or go to Taiwan to present the evidence,” he said.
Guo also spoke about three strategies formulated by China to rein in Taiwan and Hong Kong, which he said would inflict “more damage than a nuclear weapon.”
The first is China’s manipulation of information in Taiwanese and Hong Kong stock exchanges and politics, including distorting financial information and imprisoning Chen and former Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) — all of which transpired according to Beijing’s design, he said.
The second strategy involves filming businesspeople and officials gambling or accepting sexual favors and using the footage to blackmail them.
Another strategy is deceiving businesspeople into believing they are exempted from paying taxes when conducting business in China and then threatening to prosecute them over tax evasion unless they promise to carry out China’s plans to “corrupt” officials at home, Guo said.
Ma’s office spokeswoman Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said that people should not get worked up over unfounded claims.
“All the allegations are imagined,” she said.
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RSS