Former Japanese vice minister of defense Yasuhide Nakayama on Friday denied allegations made by a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker, who said Nakayama had said President William Lai (賴清德) plans to target certain people.
“Regarding the statement circulated on social media on April 25, 2025, in which Mr. Tsai Cheng-yuan [蔡正元] alleges that ‘Yasuhide Nakayama conveyed that President Lai Ching-te intended to target certain individuals’ — I, Yasuhide Nakayama, categorically and unequivocally deny these allegations,” Nakayama wrote on Facebook.
“These claims are entirely fabricated, and I reserve the right to take appropriate legal action, if necessary,” he said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Nakayama’s statement, written in Japanese, Chinese and English, was published on two Facebook pages he uses, with a link to a news story about Tsai’s Facebook post.
Tsai on Friday had written on Facebook that “former Japanese vice defense minister Yasuhide Nakayama told me through someone at the beginning of this month that Lai Ching-te is out to get me, Kuo Jeng-liang (郭正亮) and Fu Kun-chi.”
Tsai is a former lawmaker from the KMT who served in the Legislative Yuan between 2002 and 2016, Kuo is a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker who quit the party in May 2023 and Fu is a veteran KMT lawmaker, who has been the opposition party’s caucus whip since his four-year term started in February last year.
Tsai said that during a court hearing on Friday afternoon regarding his appeal against his embezzlement conviction, the prosecutors “suddenly” asked the court to impose restrictions on him traveling abroad, raise his bail or order him to wear an electronic tag.
The court ruled that Tsai needed to wear an electronic tag.
Tsai said this was the doing of Lai’s people, adding that a friend had told him that if the tag had a bad signal, people could accuse him of not wearing the tag and contravening the court order.
There was no immediate response from Lai or the DPP about Tsai’s allegations.
The High Court said that as Tsai was found guilty of embezzlement by the Taipei District Court in 2021 and had made trips abroad recently, he was ordered to wear an electronic tag to reduce flight risk during his appeal.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS