Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), a former vice premier, was yesterday afternoon released on bail of NT$5 million (US$153,965) amid allegations of corruption dating back to his time as Taoyuan mayor from December 2014 to December 2022.
The Taoyuan District Court said in a statement that prosecutors had collected significant evidence on the case, which occurred seven years ago, so there was no need to detain Cheng.
Four other suspects have been detained, the court added.
Photo: Yu Jui-jen, Taipei Times
Despite his release, Cheng has to remain in the same residence, is barred from leaving Taiwan and is prohibited from contacting other suspects and witnesses, the court said.
Another suspect surnamed Yang (楊), who is in his late 80s, was also released, but is barred from changing residence, the court added.
Prosecutors summoned Cheng for questioning on Friday, and after more than 16 hours, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office early yesterday morning sought approval from the court to detain him, due to his major role in the case.
Although Cheng denied any involvement during the questioning, evidence points toward him taking a bribe and leaking information to other suspects in the case, the court said.
Local media reported that Cheng allegedly took a bribe to assist in rezoning a plot in Guishan District (龜山) from farmland to land designated for industrial development.
The court said that no evidence supported the allegation that Cheng was involved in laundering NT$5 million in cash linked to the corruption case, and rejected a request from prosecutors to detain him.
The prosecutors’ office said the court ruling had no merit and filed a petition against the decision during the hearing.
After the ruling on his birthday yesterday, Cheng left the court smiling, but did not talk to the media.
Earlier yesterday, Cheng’s lawyer said his client maintains his innocence and is willing to work with police and prosecutors to clarify the facts and restore his reputation as soon as possible.
Cheng, who served as vice premier from Jan. 31 last year to May 20 and is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, took over as chairman of the SEF, which manages cross-strait technical and business affairs, after President William Lai (賴清德) took office on May 20.
Asked about Cheng’s case on the sidelines of an event in Tainan yesterday afternoon, Lai said that prosecutors should investigate anyone involved in illegal activities, regardless of their political affiliations, and must not indulge anyone who has committed wrongdoings.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday urged prosecutors to investigate all major developments during Cheng’s term as Taoyuan mayor, and called on Cheng to resign from his post as SEF chairman.
In 2022, National Taiwan University revoked Cheng’s master’s degree over plagiarism in his thesis.
Cheng expressed his “regrets” and apologized for mistakes made in the thesis’ citations.
He was appointed vice premier after that.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS