Former presidential adviser Wu Li-pei (吳澧培) said yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had told him and several other pro-independence stalwarts that he was forced to show receipts on the use of a special fund because "the outside world was accusing me as if I were a suspect of embezzlement."
Wu said he and former senior advisers Koo Kwang-ming (
Wu said Chen showed them receipts on how he had used the special state affairs fund to "prove his innocence," and "we believe he is innocent."
If any violations of the law have taken place, they should be handled by the judicial authorities, they said.
Last Tuesday, the Ministry of Audit said the administration had refused to present sufficient information for auditors to verify the legality of the expenditures from the NT$48 million (US$1.46 million) president's special allowance fund.
The watchdog agency said there might have been irregularities in Chen's usage of the fund.
WANG WEIGHS IN
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"I don't know what the president has shown to other people, but what I was shown was all confidential information," Wang said.
"If there is disclosure [of the receipts], it will be bad for the entire nation, and be harmful to the persons [who requested the reimbursement]," he said.
Wang said that some people and things related to a nation's diplomacy should be kept secret, noting that he hoped whoever had seen the classified information would keep what they learned confidential.
Wang made the remarks in response to reporters' questions about whether Chen's publicizing the receipts would hurt former president Lee Teng-hui (
According to Wang, among the receipts shown to him were documents indicating how Lee used the special fund from 1994 to 2000.
"On the documents about Lee's reimbursement, I saw the names [of those requesting reimbursement], the code numbers [of their diplomatic tasks] and the amounts," Wang said.
He refused to compare the way in which Lee and Chen used the special fund, saying "maybe Chen has his own way."
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip David Huang (
"It's beyond our capacity to determine whether the receipts the president showed us were legal or not," he said.
He said that the president had taken the opportunity to express his great respect for Lee, praising his predecessor for having "institutionalized" the "Feng Tien" and "Tang Yang" projects for conducting "secret diplomacy."
OPINION POLL
Meanwhile, according to a survey released yesterday by Global Vews Monthly, a total of 53.1 percent of the public think that Chen should give the public a complete explanation about the corruption allegations against the first family and answer reporters' questions about the scandals.
The survey found that 62 percent of respondents did not believe Chen's explanation of how he has spent the special state affairs fund, and only 18.2 believe him.
Among pan-green camp respondents, 53.8 percent said they believed Chen's explanation, while 26.5 percent did not.
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
SOVEREIGNTY: The rigs show that Beijing ‘rejects Taiwan’s jurisdiction’ by building in areas where Taipei demands permission to build or alter installations Chinese oil rigs have been sighted just 26 nautical miles (42km), from Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島), posing a threat to Taiwan’s sovereignty if left unchallenged, a brief published by the Jamestown Foundation on Tuesday said. Pratas Island, 444km from Kaohsiung, is northeast of the South China Sea and houses a Taiwanese garrison. The brief, titled “Rigging the Game: PRC Oil Structures Encroach on Taiwan’s Pratas Island” — referring to the People’s Republic of China — analyzed photographs and said that Beijing’s tools to pressure Taiwan now include oil rigs. “Oil rigs now constitute part of Beijing’s
The Taiwan Experience Education Program (TEEP) has funded short-term internships in Taiwan for more than 4,500 young people from more than 40 countries since 2015, with the goal of attracting and retaining international talent, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. Fifty-five colleges launched 514 projects this year, including in fields such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, medicine and biotechnology, green energy, and sustainability, it said. The program provides research and practical internships in Taiwan for two to six months, and offers cultural exchange and networking opportunities, the ministry said. For example, National Formosa University’s Embedded System and Autopilot Laboratory developed two solar-powered drones in
RSS