Former first daughter Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) yesterday threw a fit on the streets of Manhattan, screaming at a group of Taiwanese reporters dogging her every move in New York.
Chen, a dentist, left for New York on Saturday night to take a US dental aptitude test.
As soon as her plane touched down at Newark Airport in New Jersey, she was met by a throng of Taiwanese reporters who continued to follow her around the city.
Screaming at the reporters for some 15 minutes and attracting the attention of many passersby, Chen slammed them for following her everywhere like “flies hovering over my head.”
“Why do you keep following me? I am not a wanted fugitive but you [the press] have been hounding me for six months in Taiwan and in the US,” Chen said in news clips aired by several cable news channels in Taiwan yesterday.
“Do you want me to die? What exactly do you want? All you want is to disturb my life,” Chen said.
Chen Hsing-yu is the only member of former president Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) family who has not been implicated in charges of money-laundering.
Chen Shui-bian is in detention, while his wheelchair-bound wife and son have been indicted and restricted from travel.
Many pan-blue talking heads speculate that the dental aptitude test was just a convenient guise for her to be in the States to take care of business relating to Chen Shui-bian's alleged money-laundering, including meeting with the Chen family's former doctor, Huang Fang-yen (黃芳彥).
Some pan-blue pundits alleged that Huang flew to the US to tie up loose ends on the Chen family's suspect bank accounts.
Chen Hsing-yu denied she had arranged a meeting with Huang.
Asked for comments, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said in Taipei that the media take pity on Chen Hsing-yu and respect her human rights and personal space.
DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said Taiwanese reporters were stalking Chen Hsing-yu on purpose because they knew they would freak her out by doing so.
“Reporters made her go mad before the camera, film it and then broadcast it to make her a laughingstock in Taiwan and around the world,” Chiu said, urging reporters to stop tormenting her.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅), however, remained skeptical of Chen Hsing-yu's role in the money-laundering case.
KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said Chen Hsing-yu could only blame her plight on her parents, “who were so greedy for money.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG AND FLORA WANG
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