Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday called on the government to relaunch an investigation into an assassination attempt on her and former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on March 19, 2004, adding that Beijing might have plotted the shooting to intervene in Taiwanese politics.
Lu spoke at a forum in Taipei marking the 13th anniversary of the shooting, addressing persistent speculation that it was staged by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to secure Chen’s re-election.
The shooting took place one day before the 2004 presidential election as the pair was campaigning in Tainan, where a bullet grazed Chen’s abdomen and another hit Lu’s knee.
Photo: CNA
The Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office closed the case in 2005, saying the shooting was the work of a lone gunman, Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄), who was found dead 10 days after the incident.
Lu yesterday cited exiled Chinese academic Yuan Hongbing (袁紅冰) as saying that Beijing might have plotted the assassination to polarize Taiwan as part of its scheme to annex the nation.
According to Yuan, former Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) asked Xin Qi (辛旗), a Chinese People’s Liberation Army major general actively involved in civilian exchanges with Taiwanese academics and politicians in his capacity as Chinese Culture Promotion Society deputy director, to plot the shooting without killing Chen Shui-bian or Lu.
The shooting was aimed at damaging Taiwan’s democracy and making Taiwanese believe that elections were rigged, but it had to see Chen Shui-bian and Lu re-elected so that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), losing power and authority, would be willing to succumb to China, Lu said.
Beijing assigned nine agents to execute the plot, and Chen Yi-hsiung might have been recruited as the gunman, Lu quoted Yuan as saying.
A fisherman in Tainan allegedly saw Chen Yi-hsiung with the suspected agents near Anping Harbor (安平港) on March 26 and 27, 2004 — a few days prior to Chen Yi-hsiung’s death — seeking to rent a boat from the fisherman, possibly to use it to escape, Lu said.
Lu said she struggled for a few years to accept Yuan’s theory as a possible explanation of the shooting, “but I am determined to make the case a subject of public debate again” in light of the suspected intervention by Beijing, Lu said.
Alternatively, local crime rings might have instigated the shooting to influence the election, because bets were placed on the election result, she added.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has asked if the shooting was plotted by Chen Shui-bian himself, but did not comment on the shooting during his eight years in office, even though the now-defunct Special Investigation Division (SID) had assembled a task force to investigate it, Lu said.
“Was [the SID] so stupid that it could not crack the case? Or did it find the answer, but [the truth] was the opposite of what they accused Chen Shiu-bian of? That is why they did not comment on the shooting,” Lu said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has the right and the obligation to reopen the investigation into the shooting, Lu said.
Only a few DPP members have paid attention to reinvestigating the shooting, compared with their efforts to achieve transitional justice, which should also include plans to uncover the truth behind the shooting that has divided Taiwan, Lu said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS