The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday continued trading claims over KMT Chairman Lien Chan's (
While the KMT held a press conference to rebut the DPP's claim that Lien had owned real estate with a total area of 20,000 ping in 1989, the DPP launched a new attack involving Lien's assets with an ad campaign meant to cast doubt on Lien's integrity.
At a news conference held at the KMT-People First Party (PFP) alliance's national headquarters in Taipei, KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (
Lin said the tax records show that Lien owned real estate with an area of only 228 ping in that year.
The DPP on Thursday published 200,000 copies of an updated booklet detailing its claims about the manner in which Lien and his father had amassed their family fortune. According to the booklet, Lien had failed to mention the 200,000 ping of real estate controlled by enterprises related to his family when he disclosed the value of his assets last week.
"In accordance with [first lady] Wu Shu-chen's (
Lin was referring to Wu's statement last week that if Lien could prove his claims that President Chen Shui-bian (
At yesterday's news conference, pan-blue alliance spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元) was critical of Wu's dealing in stocks.
"Never before have we had a first lady like Wu who is so active in the stock market," Tsai said, raising the question of whether she had used the same stock management team that is overseeing the government's National Stabilization Fund (
Tsai urged Wu to publicize the names of those who help to manage her stocks to prove that she is not using the stabilization fund's managers.
Meanwhile, the DPP yesterday continued its attack on Lien with a newspaper ad questioning the KMT chairman's honesty regarding the value of his assets.
The half-page ad, which appeared on the front page of several major Chinese-language newspapers in Taiwan, referred to a magazine's report that Lien owned real estate in the US, but that he has not declared this to the Control Yuan for the past 10 years. It accuses Lien of "intentionally concealing his properties in the US."
The KMT said that the magazine was referring to an apartment in Boston which Lien's mother had bought for his daughter, Lien Hui-hsin (
The DPP's ad said that personal statements were needed for the registration of property and that the owner's signature was required every year when filing a tax declaration. According to the ad "it is impossible for Lien Hui-hsin to have forgotten to inform her mother about the apartment" and for Lien Fang-yu to not know that the apartment had been registered in her name.
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