Weng Ping-yao (翁炳堯) yesterday said he was instructed by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co (CUPI, 正崴) chairman Gou Tai-chiang (郭台強) to kill then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) amid a power struggle a decade ago as groups fought for control of the party’s assets.
Weng — who was convicted of firing a gun outside Tsai’s office in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) on July 28, 2007 — said that KMT officials promised him NT$320 million (US$10.56 million at the current exchange rate) to kill the lawmaker.
He implicated Ma and Gou — who is the younger brother of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘); — as well as Lor Yu-chen (羅玉珍), the wife of Gou Tai-chiang; former Central Motion Picture Corp (CMPC, 中影) vice president Chuang Wan-chun (莊婉均); and KMT stalwart Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教).
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Accompanied by attorney Chou Wu-jung (周武榮), Weng went to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, saying he wanted to confess to perjury and to ask prosecutors to reopen the investigation of the shooting.
Weng said he has evidence regarding “the plot to bump off Alex Tsai.”
After telling reporters that he would file a lawsuit against “the masterminds of the plot,” Weng entered the prosecutors’ office.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
He was released later in the day, with instructions not to leave his residence.
Weng told reporters that he was just “a hired gun, a small potato” in the case and wanted the truth to come out.
The KMT at the time of the shooting was electing members to its Central Standing Committee and other executive positions.
Photo: Su Chin-feng, Taipei Times
There was an intense power struggle over party assets, with the sale of CMPC and other KMT-controlled media companies at the center of a clash between Ma, who was president and KMT chairman at the time, and Tsai, who was the chairman of CMPC at the time, Weng said.
“Tsai refused to resign as CMPC chairman, so Ma struck a deal with Gou Tai-chiang, Lor and Chuang according to which those three would take control of CMPC,” Weng said.
“I was instructed to bump off Tsai,” he said. “It was reasoned that if Tsai was killed, then Gou Tai-chiang would become CMPC chairman.”
Weng said that Lee, who at the time was speaker of the Tainan County Council, brokered the deal to hire him to carry out the assassination.
Weng has a checkered past as a gang member in Tainan and has managed companies in Vietnam.
“I was promised a payment of NT$320 million if I killed Tsai,” he said. “That amount was agreed upon, as it was 10 percent of CMPC’s assessed value of NT$3.2 billion.”
He said the deal broke down when he was asked to also kill Wu Chien-pao (吳健保), a leading KMT figure in Tainan, but was convicted for his involvement in an underground baseball gambling syndicate.
With the deal breaking down, Weng only fired shots at Tsai’s office, he said.
He said he was cheated out of money, only receiving NT$20 million.
“During the trial, I gave false accounts and mislead prosecutors to protect Ma, Gou Tai-chiang and others, but now I want to clear up the facts of the case and let the public know the real masterminds behind the plot,” Weng said.
Ma’s office spokeswoman Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said there is no factual basis and no evidence to Weng’s allegations, adding that Ma had nothing to do with the shooting incident at Tsai’s office.
“It is absurd to the extreme that Ma should be a defendant in this case,” Hsu said. “Ma was not involved, but some people just want to stir up trouble.”
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative
Taiwan is hosting the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) for the first time, welcoming more than 400 young linguists from 43 nations to National Taiwan University (NTU). Deputy Minister of Education Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) said at the opening ceremony yesterday that language passes down knowledge and culture, and influences the way humankind thinks and understands the world. Taiwan is a multicultural and multilingual nation, with Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka, 16 indigenous languages and Taiwan Sign Language all used, Chu said. In addition, Taiwan promotes multilingual education, emphasizes the cultural significance of languages and supports the international mother language movement, he said. Taiwan has long participated
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can