New Party lawmaker Elmer Feng
Feng released only one cassette at yesterday's press conference instead of 12 as he had vowed to.
Feng claimed the recordings covered his meeting with Chen Che-nan (
The conversations, which mostly focused on three direct links, provided little proof of Feng's appointment as a secret envoy, except for one passage where Chen asked Feng to "please put all your efforts into [providing] service in communication." Chinese-language media commented yesterday that the recordings contained "more polite exchanges than controversy."
According to Feng, the recordings showed Chen's stance on cross-strait issues were much softer than publicly known.
Chen issued a statement on Saturday saying Feng had interpreted the private conversations out of context to raise his own status.
Chen said that he had decided to meet with Feng only to have the slashed portions of the Presidential Office's budget restored.
Chen said he had initially declined Feng's requests to meet, but Feng had then retaliated by pushing for a deep cut in the Presidential Office's budget and bringing up vulgar accusations against the president in the legislature, including his relentless questioning of presidential aide Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) about washing the president's underwear.
After most of the budget was restored, Feng continued to call "up to eight times a day" asking for an appointment, Chen said, adding that he had since declined to meet with Feng because he felt Feng only parotted Beijing's position despite his status as a Taiwan legislator.
Meanwhile, three DPP law-makers, Tsai Huang-liang (
The lawmakers cast doubts on Feng's claim that the recordings had been provided by "intelligence agencies," saying Feng may have made the recordings himself.
The lawmakers also questioned Feng's integrity in light of recording private conversations with government officials on the sly and twisting their meaning to his own advantage.
The lawmakers also questioned whether Feng might have released his secret recordings to the Beijing authorities.
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