Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday acknowledged that his sister, Ma Yi-nan (馬以南), had met Chang An-le (張安樂), the former leader of the Bamboo Union gang, but denied receiving political donations from the gangster.
"I knew my sister solicited support at a campaign event for me, but I wasn't aware she had met Chang. I will ask her to be more careful next time," Ma said yesterday at his campaign headquarters.
A story in the latest issue of Next Magazine said that Ma Yi-nan met Chang during a campaign party in June held by Taiwanese businesspeople in Shenzhen, China. It reported that Chang had agreed to make donations for Ma Ying-jeou's campaign.
Chang, nicknamed the White Wolf, is wanted by Taiwanese authorities and is in hiding in China.
Ma spokesman Luo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said yesterday that Ma Yi-nan had been invited to attend the event, where, with Chang present, she sought to win support for Ma. Luo said, however, that the event in question was held in June rather than in April.
Luo said that at the time, Ma Ying-jeou had yet to be formally nominated by the KMT and that therefore no political donations were made.
Luo said the Ma camp had handled all political donations in accordance with the law.
The Ma camp also dismissed allegations by Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) camp that another sister of Ma Ying-jeou, Theresa Chao (馬冰如), was a principal at a school in Beijing and that the candidate's promise to recognize educational background from China would therefore benefit that school.
Luo said the International School of Beijing invited Chao to teach at the school in 1998 and that she has since become the principal of the school's Chinese department.
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