The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said it is to press charges against a reporter for alleging that the party had sent a representative to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) to discuss appointing a new presidential candidate.
The party is to sue Up Media’s reporter for libel, as his report falsely claimed that KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) had sent former Mainland Affairs Council deputy minister Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) to the TAO to discuss replacing Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) as the party’s presidential nominee, and to ask Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) to be the party’s backup candidate, KMT Disciplinary Committee director Wei Ping-cheng (魏平政) said.
Wu never sent Chang to the TAO to discuss replacing Han, nor did he show the office any poll data about Taiwan’s elections, as the report claimed, Wei said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Wu also never sent Chang to communicate with Gou about replacing Han, he added.
The journalist did not properly verify the information, which “does not match reality at all,” Wei said.
The KMT condemns all fake news and would not rule out pressing charges, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Cheng Mei-hua (程美華) said.
“Why should the party not press charges when people are saying whatever they want?” Wu told reporters on the sidelines of an Armed Forces Day event.
The party would not choose a new candidate and repeat the same mistake it made three years ago, he said, referring to its replacement of then-candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) with former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Chu lost to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party.
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