Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday rejected a report by the Central News Agency (CNA) that said he has admitted receiving US$400,000 in subsidies from former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
CNA reported that during a Taiwan High Court hearing on Friday conducted behind closed doors, Wang admitted that he received US$400,000 in subsidies from Chen when he was in power between 2000 and 2008.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page yesterday, Wang said the content of the CNA report was untrue and that he was not approached for verification of the material.
Wang said because his comments at the closed-door hearing pertained to national security and should not be made public, he would not elaborate on what he had said in court.
Wang added that to express his protest against the news agency, he would not hold interviews with CNA until it offers an apology.
Friday’s court hearing was held as part of the judicial process investigating Chen and his family for allegedly embezzling money from the state affairs fund, the news report said.
Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), were accused of embezzling more than NT$100 million (US$3.45 million) from the fund when Chen was in office.
Chen has argued that parts of the fund were used to finance Chinese activists, including Wang, in his effort to spread democracy to China.
Chen had asked the court to summon Wang and former minister of foreign affairs James Huang (黃志芳) to testify at the hearing.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS