As opposition lawmakers yesterday questioned first lady Wu Shu-chen over (
"The first lady's financial investments in the stock market are not the Cabinet's business and I don't see any illegal transaction there," Yu said during a question-and-answer session in the Legislative Yuan.
Earlier yesterday, People First Party (PFP) Legislator Hsieh Chang-chieh (謝章捷) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative whip Liao Fung-te (廖風德) accused Wu of profiting from insider tra-ding, with transactions in the stock market in January alone amounting to NT$30 million.
"Why doesn't President Chen Shui-bian (
At the question-and-answer session, KMT Legislator Liao Wan-ju (廖婉汝) said that Wu's transactions in the stock market in November and December totaled about NT$30 million. Liao said that in January Wu accumulated another NT$30 million from playing the stock market.
When asked whether his wife was involved in any stock transactions, Yu said that as far as he knew she was not involved in the stock market.
"Even if she has any stocks, they were inherited a long time ago," Yu said.
Meanwhile, in response to a pan-blue attack on the necessity of the election-day referendum, Yu said that the referendum was necessary despite a high public consensus over the two questions contained in the referendum.
"Switzerland and Hungary have held referendums with turnout rates of more than 90 percent," Yu said.
"The turnout rate of Mongolia's independence referendum in 1921 was 100 percent. Questioning the neccesity of the referendum doesn't make any sense," he said.
Yu yesterday also instructed the Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Justice to crack down on vote-buying and election gambling in response to a request from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuo Wen-chen (
Kuo said that gambling on the election outcome was rampant in southern Taiwan.
"It's a different way of vote-buying and there's someone manipulating things behind the scenes," he said. "Those afraid of losing the game would be motivated to persuade others to cast their ballots for the candidate they have bet on."
Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
Yu also called on presidential-candidate supporters to exercise sportsmanship should their candidates lose the poll.
"We'd really hate to see the recurrence of the besieging of the KMT headquarters after KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) lost the presidential poll in 2000," Yu said, adding that the Cabinet would strengthen prevention measures to pre-empt such a scenario taking place.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
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Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard