Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator visited former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in prison yesterday to discuss Lu’s bid for the presidency and a possible pardon for Chen if the DPP won next year’s elections.
During the morning visit, Lu and Chen exchanged opinions on Lu’s candidacy for the DPP ticket, which Chen encouraged, but reportedly stopped short of endorsing.
Asked whether Chen, who still maintains a significant support base in the DPP, supported her bid, Lu said: “Of course.”
However, she said she could not give any further details of the talks.
“It would have been unusual not to hold the talks, but now that we have, I cannot say what [it was about],” said Lu, who ran with Chen in 2000 and 2004.
Visiting after the former vice president, former DPP legislator Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳) was more forthcoming in what he told Chen, who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence for accepting bribes.
Reports said Tsai told the former president that he needed to “hold on a bit longer,” adding that a release was forthcoming, referring to a potential pardon by a future DPP administration if it won next year’s presidential election.
“It won’t be so long now,” Tsai said. “The DPP has the confidence to pull off a big victory.”
Although the DPP has been noncommittal on the controversial issue of a presidential pardon for Chen, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has asked President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to consider the move.
The former president, whose legacy is still dividing the party he once led, and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), were found guilty by the Supreme Court in November.
The court upheld a conviction that they took NT$300 million (US$10.23 million) to illegally facilitate a land purchase deal and accepted a NT$10 million bribe to help a prominent businesswoman secure an appointment at a securities firm.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry