Legislator faces off with Chien

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien responds to PFP Legislator Lee Ching-hua's accusation at the legislature yesterday that he had close relations Andrew Wang. PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

PFP Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) and Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) yesterday exchanged harsh words at a legislative subcommittee over the controversial notarization issue surrounding a runaway murder suspect.

Although Chien has appointed lawyer Ku Li-hsiung (顧立雄) to send letters to Lee and military analyst Chang Yu-hua (張友驊) demanding their formal apologies within three days over alleged ties between Chien and fugitive Andrew Wang (汪傳浦), Lee gave no sign of concession yesterday.

Lee continued to attack Chien at the legislative foreign and overseas Chinese affairs committee yesterday afternoon. He urged Chien to apologize to the public for the controversy over the issuing of notarization of a certificate of appointment by representative offices in Geneva back in July 2001 and in London last month.

The notarization allowed Wang to appoint attorney Chang Nai-lain (張迺良) to file a libel suit in Taiwan on his behalf against national policy adviser Hsieh Tsung-min (謝聰敏) and a China Times reporter.

PFP Legislator Lee Ching-hua holds up a copy of former chief of the general staff Hau Pei-tsun's memoirs during his speech at the legislature yesterday. Lee accused foreign minister Eugene Chien of having close relations with former arms dealer and fugitive Andrew Wang. PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

But Chien refused to bow to Lee's request, saying in his capacity as the foreign minister he was not in charge of consular affairs directly.

Lee also ridiculed the ministry's decision to revoke the issuance of notarization by citing a violation of national interests as the reason behind the cancellation.

"Why didn't you know at the time [of issuing] that the move was not in accordance with Taiwan's interest?" Lee said.

"You are making unfounded and malicious attacks on me. I've never held any public hearings for Wang."

-- Eugene Chien, minister of foreign affairs

Lee reiterated that Chien, in his former capacity as a lawmaker in the 1980s, had held public hearings for the former arms dealer Wang, an accusation met with stark denial by Chien.

"You are making unfounded and malicious attacks on me. I've never held any public hearings for Wang," Chien said raising his voice.

The bitter exchange reached a climax when Lee kept showing a series of newspaper reports to Chien and shouting, "Look!" The move drew laughter from the assembled press and officials, while the foreign minister continued to defend his stance and attack Lee in return.

"Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) has said you've improperly quoted [his book] and made a wrongful emphasis. And now you have begun citing unconfirmed reports again," Chien said.

Hau issued a press release last Friday evening saying his book didn't implicate Chien as one of the "evil forces," as cited by Lee, and that Lee had gone too far in paraphrasing his book in his attack on the foreign minister.

Lee had cited passages from Hau's book, entitled Eight years' diary as Chief of the General Staff, to implicate Chien as having been involved in legislative interpellations on behalf of Wang.

Hau wrote in the book that on March 18, 1984, the agent of a German company, who was not identified in the book but was confirmed later by different sources as Wang, asked Chien to lobby in his favor in the legislature.

Lee, however, turned around to attack Hau yesterday for backpedaling in his Friday statement considering his son Hau Lung-pin (郝龍斌) works for the DPP administration as the chief of the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).

Hau Lung-pin refused to make any comment unrelated to EPA affairs.

If no apologies are forthcoming from the PFP legislator and the military analyst, Chien will file suit against them for defamation, he said.

A Control Yuan member yesterday declined to confirm whether or not the unit's investigation team would meet with Chien to further investigate any pitfalls in the ministry's handling of the notarization issue.

As the Cabinet's three-person task force is soon to unveil the investigation results regarding the representative offices' handling of the notarization process, spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday suggested that Chien might be spared in the matter.

"As the issuance and later revocation of the notarization of Wang's certificate of appointment was handled in accordance with related regulations, no one should be punished for anything," Lin said.

Lin also explained why the foreign ministry later revoked the notarization.

"The ministry revoked the notarization because the issuance of such a paper posed a potential of sabotaging its national interests," Lin said.

According to Lin, the Control Yuan reminded the ministry that the issuance of the notarization would lead to Wang's being able to use the money stored in his bank in Geneva.

Lin, however, failed to specify when the task force will make available the investigation result.

The task force, led by Minister without Portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄), is composed of Lee Jo-1 (李若一), deputy director-general of the Cabinet-level Central Personnel Administration, and Vice Minister of Justice Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定).