Taipei prosecutors are investigating suspected bribes connected to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) presidential campaign, as the billionaire gathers signatures to run in next year’s election.
Thirteen people have been questioned over suspected cash payments offered in exchange for signatures in support of Gou’s presidential bid, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
Gou’s campaign has distanced itself from the suspects, repeating its earlier condemnation of illegal behavior.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The bribery investigation is the latest blow to Gou’s campaign. Chinese authorities last month announced a probe of the tech giant he founded.
Meanwhile, Gou and his running mate, Tammy Lai (賴佩霞), yesterday submitted petition signatures they collected to the Taipei City Election Commission.
“Today is a very important day. I am here to convey the aspirations of the Taiwanese people in pursuing democracy and freedom,” said Gou, who did not reveal the number of signatures filed.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Gou is required by law to collect 289,667 signatures, equivalent to 5 percent of eligible voters in the 2020 presidential election by today.
In related news, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, has said that Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) is “at the top” of the list of candidates he is considering as a running mate.
He made the remarks in a trailer aired on Tuesday for a TV interview with host Paul Lee (李四端).
In the interview clip, William Lai said he has a list of six possible vice presidential picks, of whom Hsiao and former minister of culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) have generated the most discussion.
Pressed by Lee on whether Hsiao is “at the top” of his list of potential running mates, Lai said: “Yeah, you could say that.”
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
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