People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
Soong said that the recent controversy involving the legislators was due to the administration deliberately taking advantage of Liu's "slip of tongue."
Soong made the comments while campaigning for legislative candidates in Taipei yesterday.
President Chen Shui-bian (
The three made allegations recently that Chen had presented Moscoso with a US$1 million check as a birthday gift and "settlement fee" for an implied instance of sexual harassment.
Liu and Tsai originally made the allegations in an attempt to expose what they claimed was an improper exchange of money in the government's foreign relations.
"The best example of dollar diplomacy was when [former president] Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) donated money to support [Nelson] Mandela's African National Congress (ANC).
"Even worse, Lee got the money forwarded from a secret fund in the National Security Bureau," Soong said yesterday.
Soong was referring to the "Liu case controversy" in 2002, when it was revealed that Lee had agreed to donate US$10 million to the heavily indebted ANC in 1994 to maintain friendly South African-Taiwan ties.
The money was taken from a fund in the bureau, for which it was reimbursed.
"These things are true; they cannot sue me," Soong said.
Soong also emphasized yesterday the importance of the pan-blue camp winning a legislative majority in the upcoming elections.
He said that without a pan-blue win, financial corruption in the pan-green camp would run amok.
A major factor contributing to Soong's loss in the presidential election in 2000 were accusations from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that he had,during his time as the party's secretary general, illegally transferred more than NT$200 million in party funds to the bank accounts of his family members.
The incident is still under investigation. Soong has never adequately explained the money transfers.
Soong stumped for PFP, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and New Party candidates in Taipei and Changhua County yesterday.
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
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