Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英), the former information division acting director at the nation’s representative office in Toronto who on Monday admitted he wrote a number of articles smearing Taiwan and Taiwanese, yesterday revealed that he once handed over confidential papers regarding the assassination of writer Henry Liu (劉宜良) to Liu’s wife.
Liu, a vocal critic of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) also known by his pen name Chiang Nan (江南), was assassinated at his home in California in 1984 in what many believe was a political murder. He was most famous for writing an unauthorized biography of former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
In an interview with TVBS aired yesterday, Kuo told the story about the Chiang Nan case in a bid to prove that he had been a “patriotic person,” in response to the criticism he has received over the articles written under the pen name Fan Lan-chin (范蘭欽).
Kuo said that he revealed confidential government information to Liu’s family after the murder when he was a Government Information Office (GIO) official stationed in New York.
“What I did at that time betrayed the government … During the authoritarian era, the government killed a man. It should not do that. In terms of administrative ethics, Kuo Kuan-ying violated ethics rules. But in terms of high moral standards, he was patriotic and he did that for the good of the country,” Kuo said in the interview.
Tsui Jung-chih (崔蓉芝), Liu’s widow, later yesterday confirmed Kuo’s remarks when she was contacted by TVBS. Tsui said she was given some information by Kuo after the death of her husband in which she learned how the government planned to deal with her.
In the interview, Kuo said that the Fan Lan-chin incident had forced him to “come out of the closet politically.”
“Over the past 20 years, I have been patriotic while keeping my identity hidden,” he said. “After the [Fan Lan-chin incident], I am forced to be patriotic using my real name.”
Kuo said that his “biggest wish in the remainder of his life was to live in a stable province of Taiwan unified with China.”
The GIO on Monday issued Kuo two demerits and relieved him of his civil servant status for his “inconsistent” explanations to the GIO on whether he was Fan and a series of remarks he made to the media that the GIO considered a “declared defiance of the government.”
Kuo was not disciplined for the articles written under the pen name that smeared Taiwan and Taiwanese.
GIO Personnel Office Director Kuo Cheng-sheng (郭忠聖) said yesterday that whether the freedom of speech of civil servants should be compromised because of their post should be determined by the Judicial Yuan’s Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Functionaries and not the GIO.
Kuo Kuan-ying said in the TVBS interview that the GIO had punished him out of “political concerns,” but added that he did not harbor resentment against the GIO for taking disciplinary action against him.
“I didn’t feel that I lost too much [because of the incident]. I lost my pension and my position, but I earned the country a big advantage and earned myself a reputation … This is a reward for me as a Chinese. I do not blame anyone. I am very satisfied,” he said.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
RSS