The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday filed a lawsuit against Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) for his comments accusing DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of corruption.
The party said it filed the lawsuit because Wu, who is on leave to concentrate on his campaign as President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) running mate, had violated the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) by spreading a rumor or false statement for the purpose of getting a candidate elected or impeding a candidate’s election chances.
At a campaign rally on Friday, Wu accused Tsai of corruption in the so-called “Yu Chang case” during her time as vice premier in 2007, when she approved separate government investments of NT$875 million (US$28.8 million) and US$20 million — about NT$1.4 billion in total — for the bio-technology start-up before leaving office and serving as Yu Chang’s chairperson.
Photo: CNA
The National Development Fund’s (NDF) investment in Yu Chang was a lot less than NT$1.4 billion and Wu’s comments were an “obvious smear,” DPP spokesman Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said.
The NDF deposited its initial investment of NT$264 million in Yu Chang,now known as TaiMed Biologics Co, and approved the second phase investment of NT$875 million in March 2008, but the second deposit never went through after the change in government in May 2008, he said.
“No matter how you calculate it, the sum would not be NT$1.4 billion,” Chuang said.
Photo: Lin Chun-hung, Taipei Times
Wu failed to get the time right either because the NT$875 million investment was approved by the NDF in March 2008, 10 months after Tsai left office in May 2007, DPP lawyer Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said.
Huang said it was strange that Wu’s comments came after his wife, Tsai Ling-yi (蔡令怡), had apologized for citing incorrect information at a KMT rally on Dec. 11 to accuse Tsai Ing-wen of transferring NT$1.1 billion in public funds to the accounts of her family’s businesses.
Including Wu, the DPP has now filed lawsuits against eight KMT politicians or political analysts over the Yu Chang case since Wednesday as the party insisted Tsai was not involved in any wrongdoing.
The DPP sued Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) over allegedly forging documents that were used to smear Tsai and KMT legislators Chiu Yi (邱毅), Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑), Lin Yi-shih (林益世) and Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), as well as political commentator Clara Chou (周玉蔻), for spreading rumors.
At a separate setting yesterday, DPP legislative candidate Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) filed a lawsuit with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office against Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), alleging recent remarks by Gou may have violated election laws.
Juan, who represents the party in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山), said Gou had said he supported Ma’s election and added that he planned to hire charter flights to return his staff from China to vote.
Juan said such measures could constitute vote buying.
Gou also joined a campaign rally for independent legislative candidate Lin Pin-kuan (林炳坤) on Penghu and told Lin that if he was elected, he would invest in a film company to make a movie in Penghu and that he would also provide funds so National Penghu University of Science and Technology could send people to attend the world energy investment competition, Juan said.
Those remarks also might have broken vote-buying regulations, Juan said.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
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
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS