James Soong (宋楚瑜) has filed a slander suit against Hsu Den-koun (許登宮) after the TSU lawmaker said last week that the PFP chairman visited Japan, the Philippines and the US in 1999 at the behest of the Chinese State Council.
Li Ful-dien (李復甸), Soong's lawyer, filed the slander suit at the Taipei District Court yesterday.
"Soong wants to sue Hsu because he made up a rumor and damaged Soong's reputation at a press conference," Li said yesterday.
On Friday, the TSU lawmaker said Soong had visited Japan, the Philippines and the US on the behalf of China's State Council in the lead up to the 2000 presidential election.
"This was totally made up by Hsu," Li said. "We have filed a suit against him according to Article 311-1 of the Criminal Code."
Soong's lawyer said the dispute wasn't between the PFP and TSU, but was a personal matter between Soong and Hsu.
Hsu has acknowledged saying that Soong's trip in the summer of 1999 was arranged by China's State Council. He said he was ready to defend that claim.
But Hsu hasn't explained why he believes China's State Council had arranged Soong's trip or why he made the remarks.
The TSU lawmaker said he would hold a press conference later to elaborate on his claim.
According to PFP spokesman Hsieh Kung-ping (
"I can't really remember when the trip was," Hsieh said. "But Soong did meet with the Japanese opposition Democratic Party leader Tsutomu Hata, who was also the former Japanese premier, Joseph Estrada, the then-president of the Philippines, as well as Corazon Aquino, the former president of the Philippines."
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