Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday denied having ever said that he regretted taking part in a press conference in which President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) condemned Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) for alleged influence peddling.
Jiang said in a statement that he has always supported Ma’s efforts to defend the independence of the judicial system and his position on not interfering in individual legal cases.
Jiang was responding to a report in the Chinese-language Apple Daily that claimed he regretted having appeared at the Sept. 8 press conference along with Ma and Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義). Neither Jiang nor Wu said anything at the conference.
Quoting unnamed sources, the Apple Daily said Jiang told a Control Yuan investigation team that he had been instructed to attend the press conference.
“If the clock could be wound back. I probably would have asked myself whether attending a press conference that calls for the resignation of the legislative Speaker might violate the constitutional division of powers,” Jiang was reported as saying.
In his press release, Jiang said the report and the claim that it was based on were “completely contrary to the truth.”
Jiang said he clearly told Control Yuan members that there was no question of him overstepping constitutional boundaries. Lobbying for individual legal cases is a crime in a democracy, Jiang said, adding that on this issue of right and wrong, he fully supported the decision of the president.
In the statement, the Executive Yuan also expressed “incomprehension and regret” that Jiang’s comments — given in a supposedly confidential process — had been leaked to and misrepresented in a newspaper.
The Control Yuan investigation was part of an impeachment investigation targeting State Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘), who briefed Ma in August on information that appeared to indicate that Wang lobbied the justice minister on behalf of an opposition lawmaker who was the defendant in a breach of trust case.
Huang has been indicted for leaking classified information and faces a second attempt by the Control Yuan to impeach him after a first attempt failed last month.
Acting on the information, Ma held the press conference to issue a strongly worded statement, calling Wang’s alleged interference in a legal case “the most serious infringement” of the independence of Taiwan’s judiciary.
Three days later, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) disciplinary committee voted to revoke Wang’s party membership
However, Wang then won a court injunction to keep his position as speaker pending the outcome of a lawsuit on the legitimacy of the KMT’s move.
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
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
RSS