New Power Party Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday called for the resignation of China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) chairman Hsieh Shih-chien (謝世謙) after the company denied being complicit in an alleged smuggling case involving a National Security Bureau (NSB) agent.
Huang on Monday said that the official, Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), attempted to smuggle 9,200 cartons of cigarettes worth more than US$200,000 when he returned to Taiwan with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) from a state visit to the Caribbean earlier in the day.
Wu, who accompanied Tsai on her trip, allegedly pre-ordered the cigarettes using China Airlines’ online duty-free store with help from the airline, Huang said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
It was written on the order that the cigarettes were to be picked up on the return of the president’s airplane, but they were never delivered to the plane, he added.
Instead, the cigarettes were kept in the airline’s storage facility until they were transported to five trucks that later joined Tsai’s motorcade leaving the airport, he said.
While China Airlines on Monday insisted that it had followed procedures in handling the purchase, Huang said that the company was “full of lies” and avoided taking responsibility.
It sold Wu 9,200 cartons of cigarettes, despite custom laws stipulating that only certified tobacco sellers can import more than five cartons of cigarettes, he said.
The airline also left no records that the cigarettes were being kept in its storage facility, he said, adding that the cigarettes had not been logged into the facility’s inventory and that no records indicated that the cartons had been moved to the plane or returned to the facility.
Huang said that shortly before the news conference yesterday, a China Airlines representative had told him that the chairman knew nothing about the matter and was unable to provide any information about the case.
“If that is the attitude of the chairman, I would say please resign,” he said.
Huang added that National Security Council Secretary-General David Lee (李大維) still owes the public an explanation.
“Please tell us if anyone in the council is involved in the case. How can the secretary-general of the National Security Council be hiding this whole time?” he asked.
Two other people on the flight ordered duty-free goods that were not sent to the plane for pickup, Huang said.
The legislator added that he could not reveal further details as they were part of an ongoing investigation.
‘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