Taiwan Quick Take: Chao demands apology

Following a report by the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday saying that President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) son-in-law Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘) has been selling his jewelry, Chao's lawyer, Ku Li-hsiung (顧立雄), said his client will press charges against the paper's "false report." The report quoted anonymous sources in the jewelry business as saying that Chao, indicted in a high-profile insider trading case, had sold a 13-carat diamond to a Hong Kong jewelry house. As Chao may have also been involved in money laundering, said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) yesterday, he suspected that Chao sold the jewelry to hide his illegal dealings and was preparing to abscond. Chao, however, denied the report and asked the paper to run a correction on its page by next Monday. "If not, the United Daily News will have to face the legal consequences," Ku said.