Former chairman of the National Science Council Wei Che-ho (魏哲和) yesterday told a court that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) did not interfere with the government’s purchase of land.
Wei was in court as a witness for the defense in the trial alleging that Chen accepted kickbacks in a land deal.
Wei, who served as council chairman from 2001 to 2004, was questioned for more than four hours at the Taipei District Court.
Prosecutors allege that in a meeting at the Presidential Office with former Hsinchu Science Park chief James Lee (李界木), Wei and other government officials, Chen proposed that the council first rent the plot of land in Longtan (龍潭), Taoyuan County, before eventually buying the land to include it as part of the Hsinchu Industrial Science Park.
The motivation was for former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to collect NT$400 million (US$12 million) in bribes, prosecutors allege.
However, Wei told the court that the former president did not instruct him or other government officials on how to rent or purchase the plot of land in Longtan.
Wei told the court: “[During the meeting,] Lee first briefed the former president on the progress of the land purchase. However, [then premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃)] voiced concern about whether the decision would adversely affect Chen’s election campaign. I remember Chen said, ‘I will deal with the election campaign, and you deal with the administrative work as you see fit.’”
Prosecutors asked Wei then whether the former president gave specific instructions on options for purchasing or renting the land.
Wei replied: “No.”
He also denied that Chen had told him and other officials to “actively cooperate” in the handling of the land deal.
Meanwhile, the former first lady’s trial continued yesterday afternoon. Prosecutors allege that with the help of her friend, Tsai Ming-che (蔡明哲), Wu accepted US$2.73 million in bribes from contractor Kuo Chuan-ching (郭銓慶) to help him win a tender to build the Nangang Exhibition Hall between 2002 and 2003.
Kuo told the court yesterday that he gave Wu NT$600 million (US$17.8 million) through Tsai, but said the money was a political donation.
He said he also gave her US$2.2 million as a way of thanking her after his company won the tender for the construction project.
This contradicted what the former first lady said two months ago. She admitted to receiving US$2.2 million from Kuo, not US$2.73 million as stated in the indictment.
She did not say whether the US$2.2 million was a bribe as prosecutors allege or a political donation as she previously suggested.
Tsai was scheduled to testify in court yesterday, but because Chen Shui-bian’s trial went overtime, the judge asked Tsai to return to court at a later date.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods