As opposition lawmakers yesterday questioned first lady Wu Shu-chen over (
"The first lady's financial investments in the stock market are not the Cabinet's business and I don't see any illegal transaction there," Yu said during a question-and-answer session in the Legislative Yuan.
Earlier yesterday, People First Party (PFP) Legislator Hsieh Chang-chieh (謝章捷) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative whip Liao Fung-te (廖風德) accused Wu of profiting from insider tra-ding, with transactions in the stock market in January alone amounting to NT$30 million.
"Why doesn't President Chen Shui-bian (
At the question-and-answer session, KMT Legislator Liao Wan-ju (廖婉汝) said that Wu's transactions in the stock market in November and December totaled about NT$30 million. Liao said that in January Wu accumulated another NT$30 million from playing the stock market.
When asked whether his wife was involved in any stock transactions, Yu said that as far as he knew she was not involved in the stock market.
"Even if she has any stocks, they were inherited a long time ago," Yu said.
Meanwhile, in response to a pan-blue attack on the necessity of the election-day referendum, Yu said that the referendum was necessary despite a high public consensus over the two questions contained in the referendum.
"Switzerland and Hungary have held referendums with turnout rates of more than 90 percent," Yu said.
"The turnout rate of Mongolia's independence referendum in 1921 was 100 percent. Questioning the neccesity of the referendum doesn't make any sense," he said.
Yu yesterday also instructed the Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Justice to crack down on vote-buying and election gambling in response to a request from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuo Wen-chen (
Kuo said that gambling on the election outcome was rampant in southern Taiwan.
"It's a different way of vote-buying and there's someone manipulating things behind the scenes," he said. "Those afraid of losing the game would be motivated to persuade others to cast their ballots for the candidate they have bet on."
Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
Yu also called on presidential-candidate supporters to exercise sportsmanship should their candidates lose the poll.
"We'd really hate to see the recurrence of the besieging of the KMT headquarters after KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) lost the presidential poll in 2000," Yu said, adding that the Cabinet would strengthen prevention measures to pre-empt such a scenario taking place.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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