Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chen Cheng-sheng (陳振盛) yesterday accused Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) of sending gangsters to threaten to kill him unless he withdrew from the Nantou County commissioner election.
Chen yesterday went to a local police station to put on record the encounter, which he said happened at his house at midnight the night before he was due to register as a candidate last Wednesday.
“The chief of the baidao [白道, law enforcers] sent a representative of the heidao [黑道, gangsters] to give me his orders, saying that if I dared to register the next day, gangsters would do me in,” Chen said.
Chen said the person talked to him in a threatening manner.
Calling Wu “the chief of the country's baidao,” Chen said he wanted to let Wu realize the seriousness of the problem as it happened in Wu's hometown, where Wu had served as commissioner from 1981 to 1989 and three terms as lawmaker.
The KMT has nominated the incumbent commissioner, Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿), for re-election and expelled Chen from the party.
Fielding a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) during the question-and-answer session, Wu said he “had no comment” on the allegations made by Chen.
Wu said he didn't need to react to political rhetoric made by candidates, adding that Chen should register a complaint with the police or prosecutors if he had solid evidence.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on