Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday took legal action against political pundit Hu Chung-hsin (胡忠信) over his allegations that she received at least three NT$30 million (US$913,000) checks from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters in exchange for her withdrawal from the presidential race.
Hu on a political TV show on Friday last week said that other than a check for NT$30 million that Hung’s former campaign advisor Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said the KMT headquarters had offered to Hung as campaign funds (but suspected by many to be a bribe offered in exchange for Hung’s withdrawal), three other checks, each for NT$30 million, had been provided to Hung.
Hung’s office yesterday denied the allegation and said that on the very day Hu made the accusation, prosecutors had closed their probe into the rumored breaches of election laws by the KMT.
“Hu, well aware of the fact that the probe was closed, nevertheless fabricated his story [about the bribes] without evidence or asking [Hung] for confirmation and defamed Hung,” the office said in a statement, adding that Hung has commissioned attorneys to file a slander lawsuit against Hu.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Chinese media Fenghuang published on Wednesday, Hung said that the cross-strait policy the KMT is championing now is exactly the same policy that got her ousted from the presidential election.
“[KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and KMT Secretary-General Lee Shu-chuan (李四川)] told the Special Investigation Division that they had asked me to adjust my cross-strait policy; that is simply nonsense. They only told me to withdraw. They never said that I could stay in the race if I made adjustments to the policy,” Hung was quoted as saying.
Hung said the meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) shows her cross-strait stance was not mistaken or “against public opinion.”
“I have never opposed the ‘1992 consensus,’ but I’ve also emphasized that the two sides have to walk toward the ‘deep-water zone,’ which is what [Ma and Xi] meant when they talked about ‘consolidating and deepening the ‘1992 consensus,’” Hung said.
“The ‘1992 consensus’ also means anti-Taiwan independence because Taiwan independence is separatism, and that is why I am against it. The Republic of China Constitution recognizes that the motherland is divided; otherwise there would not be a sentence in the preamble to the Additional Articles stating: ‘For meeting the needs before the unification of the country.’ That clearly indicates the ROC Constitution is pursuing a future unification,” Hung said.
Hung also criticized Taiwanese education, which she said is not sufficient in telling young students “where their ancestors came from.”
“The textbooks in the past 20 years have brainwashed the children,” Hung said, adding that the younger generation no longer feels nostalgic toward the Yellow River and Yangtze River in China, but only learns and has feelings about Taiwan’s Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) and Tamsui River (淡水河).
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
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IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
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