A reception that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) attended in London on Sunday with local overseas Chinese was sponsored in part by supporters of Beijing's "Anti-Secession" Law, the head of a British-Taiwanese association said yesterday.
Taiwanese Association in the UK director Lee Yi-te (
"Lin Wei (
PHOTO: CNA
"We're stunned that Ma accepted a reception and donation from someone who supported the Anti-Secession Law. Chan had personally suggested to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) the need to legislate the Anti-Secession Law," Lee said.
"He [Chan] has also been seen to openly support China's military aggression against Taiwan," Lee said.
"Ma said here that he is committed to defending Taiwan's sovereignty, but Chan's donation made us wonder whether he was saying one thing but doing another," Lee said.
Chan, who is also head of a British-Chinese association advocating Taiwan's unification with China, has supported Beijing's controversial law and use of military force against Taiwan in a number of publications.
"The Anti-Secession Law [has] the utmost respect for Taiwanese people's will for peace and is the best way to maintain the cross-strait status quo," Chan was quoted as saying by China's state-run Xinhua news agency on Dec. 21, 2004.
Ma is on the UK leg of a five-nation European tour.
He gave a speech on cross-strait relations during the reception on Sunday. The reception was organized by the KMT's UK branch, the Sun Yat-sen Association and the Republic of China Women's Association in the UK.
In addition to dozens of overseas Taiwanese residents in London, the attendees included overseas Chinese and Hong Kong residents.
Also present was a former official of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission (OCAC), Rao Gang (
"We're disappointed that these people were seen at Ma's reception. The appearance of a corrupt official at Ma's event was very ironic since Ma has long been trying to build a corruption-free image," Lee said.
"We wanted to ask if this means that if Ma is elected president, Rao's case [would] no longer be pursued by the authorities," Lee said.
Rao served as secretary of the OCAC in the UK for nine years. He has been wanted since September 2002 on suspicion of embezzling funds from the UK office's budget.
Meanwhile, the Taipei City Government yesterday denied that it planned the reception.
"I did not hear about any of this from our people in Europe. I do not know about anyone making donations to the mayor, but I do not think this is something planned by us," Wu Chyou-mei (
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
RSS