With mudslinging among the presidential candidates intensifying, independent James Soong (
The first case came yesterday as Soong was accused of libel by the younger brother of a presidential aide, who claims that Soong defamed him by bringing up an old accusation he had already been cleared of legally.
Su Chih-jen
Su Chih-jen said yesterday that a 1996 court ruling had cleared him of any malfeasance. Former legislator Ju Kao-cheng (
Su is asking the court for NT$20 million from Soong, whom he alleged was trying to cover up his own scandals by diverting public attention.
"Soong has been avoiding giving straight answers to questions about his financial transactions. Now he simply wants to dodge the issue by trying to put the spotlight on people who are totally irrelevant. This is all a ploy aimed at the media," Su said.
Last December, KMT legislator Yang Chi-hsiung (
Tu Yu-ming (
He also claimed Soong was making the remarks on the basis of media reports, not out of personal malice.
Yen Jung-chang (
"It's up to the voters to clear Soong of these malicious accusations," he said.
Independent legislator Lin Ruey-tu
Lin's remarks did not directly implicate Soong in corruption, but they have become a point on which the other candidates have focused.
The Presidential Office, meanwhile, issued a rare, sternly worded statement condemning Soong
Soong's comments on procurement referred to a recently released Rand Corporation report which suggested that Taiwan's defense policy and procurement decision-making processes are poorly coordinated both within the top leadership and between the civilian and military elite.
The Presidential Office statement said Soong's remarks about the report were inappropriate and a serious insult to both the Presidential Office and all servicemen.
Noting that the government has consistently conducted very careful and prudent evaluations of all arms deals, the statement stressed that Taiwan has drawn up weaponry procurement plans based on defense needs and arsenal modernization projects.
"It is regrettable that Soong has deliberately disseminated the erroneous Rand Corporation report even after the Ministry of National Defense and other relevant government agencies had refuted it," the statement said, adding that Soong should assume legal responsibility for airing false allegations against the government.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
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