Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairwoman Therese Shaheen issued a statement yesterday rebutting allegations by some local media outlets and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that she would speak publicly about president-elect Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) green card status prior to last Saturday's presidential election.
In her statement, in English and Chinese, Shaheen said she was "never involved in any matters" regarding the green card issue during the presidential campaign.
"Fantastic rumors about my alleged involvement, my plans to make public statements about it, and the allegation that I was doing so because I favored one party over the other were 100 percent false," she said.
Shaheen was referring to KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih's (
Several media outlets, including TVBS, made the same allegation.
However, in the statement Shaheen said that during two interviews with CTI TV and SET TV on March 16 and 17, she had made it clear that "the green card issue was irrelevant to me and not something I intended to comment on."
She also dismissed media speculation that she did not show up at Hsieh's election-eve rally because the US government had asked her not to publicly comment on the green card issue.
"At no time did anyone in the American government ask me not to make public statements about the green card issue or any other issues," her statement read. "I traveled to Taiwan as a private citizen, to speak to a private sector conference, the 2008 Taiwan Global Technology and Industry Summit Forum."
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
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