The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday hit back at the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over its recent attacks on a wide range of issues, including the government’s decisionmaking process, Japanese food imports, foreign relations and the handling of the KMT’s ill-gotten assets.
In a rare gesture, all five DPP spokespeople and a DPP lawyer called a news conference yesterday morning to rebut allegations made by the KMT.
Regarding a plan to lift the ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures, DPP spokesman Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) said that the KMT has spread false information and disrupted public hearings on the proposed lifting.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
“KMT [officials] have used the hearings as a stage to campaign for their potential entrances to next year’s party chair election, and the party has deliberately fabricated rumors to slander the government,” Juan said.
Saying that the KMT, to excite public fear, has absurdly tried to use the DPP administration’s nuclear-free policy to criticize its proposal to relax restrictions on Japanese food imports, Juan added that the government would not allow radioactively contaminated food to enter the nation.
In addition, the KMT has falsely said that the weekly High-Level Meeting for Policy Coordination chaired by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is the president’s attempt to override the authority of the Executive Yuan, DPP spokesman Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said.
The meeting serves as a regular inter-ministerial coordination mechanism, something also seen in the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), and Tsai does not act outside her authority, Wang said.
In the aftermath of the US presidential election, the KMT accused the DPP of risking Taiwan-US relations by “betting” on US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, DPP spokesman Yang Chia-liang (楊家俍) said.
“While media and political parties around the world have focused on the impact of the US presidential election, the KMT has directed its energy toward attacking the ruling party with false accusations,” Yang said.
The KMT has also attempted to create a false impression that the economy is suffering as a result of the decline in the number of Chinese tourists, DPP spokesman David Huang (黃適卓) said.
However, the economy has been stabilized, with the nation’s exports growing for three consecutive months, and the number of tourists again exceeding 10 million this year, with the 10 million mark being reached nine days earlier than last year, Huang said.
While the KMT has reiterated that it holds no questionable assets, it has tried to disrupt the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee’s investigations into the KMT’s assets, DPP spokeswoman Chiu Li-li (邱莉莉) said.
The KMT has disposed of nearly NT$60 billion (US$1.86 billion) in party assets, while the party still owns companies worth billions of New Taiwan dollars, Chiu said, calling on the party to return those assets to the state.
Saying that the DPP is considering pressing charges against the KMT over false accusations, lawyer Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) called on the KMT to exercise self-restraint.
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