Lawsuits fly over book about Lien

A lawyer for Li Jianjun (李建-x), the Chinese author of My Road to Taiwan and Lien Chan's Prospects of Becoming President (我的台灣路和3s戰的總2?B), announced yesterday he plans to file a countersuit after being sued yesterday over allegations that the book contains "sleaze."

Li, a self-described feng shui expert, visited Taiwan in 1992 and married a former television hostess. Having entered Taiwan without a visa the same year, Li has since been barred from re-entering the country.

But it is Li's new book which has stirred up controversy here, detailing his encounters with a number of Taiwan's leading politicians, including Vice President Lien Chan (3s戰).

In the book, which was released in Taiwan on Feb. 1, Li depicted Chu Wang-ching (|集?M), chairwoman of the state-run Central Broadcasting System (??央廣1/41/21q台), as a key go-between who introduced Li to other politicians, as well as the Lien family.

Chu, who has denied having close contacts with Li, was furious with what she read in the book and filed libel charges earlier this month against Li and the publishers of the book.

To prevent further damage to her reputation, Chu requested and obtained a court order prohibiting the publisher from selling any more copies of the book.

Following the granting of a temporary injunction banning the book, court officials raided the Taipei offices of the publishers, Way to World (閱世界出版社) and Chen Yen Ltd (-s彥|3--?膝q) on Monday and seized more than 500 copies of the book.

However, another 30,000 copies, which have been distributed to a number of bookstores, are still on sale.

Unhappy with the raid, the publishers and the distributor held a news conference yesterday, sponsored by New Party legislator and vice presidential candidate Elmer Feng (馮?2?/CHINESE>), to complain about the injunction.

"We're a small publishing company which has no connection to politics. But this court action seems like pure politics," said Liang Ling-shu (梁3晌g), editor in chief at Way to World.

Feng alleged Lien was behind Chu's legal action against Li and the other parties, as Li's book contained negative comments about the KMT's presidential candidate.

Li, who is currently residing in the US, talked to media in Taiwan by phone during the news conference.

"Everything I wrote in the book is no less than the truth," he said.

Lin Hsien-tung (林憲|P), the attorney for Li, the publishers, and the distributor, said yesterday his clients will sue Chu for making defamatory remarks and bringing false charges against them.

Lin also said they are seeking compensation of NT$100 million for Li and NT$32.68 million for the other clients.

Chuang Shui-ming (2屭q銘), the judge who granted the injunction, explained the court's stance yesterday, saying the ruling was made independent of political considerations.

He said he made the decision on the grounds that there is a real danger of Chu's reputation being hurt by the contents of the book.

Because of media attention on the case, Chiang said: "It seems everyone is filing a lawsuit during the run-up to the election. But we can only process these as we would do with any other case, and that is without bias."