Former United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) chairman Robert Tsao (曹興誠) yesterday said pro-China media are spreading disinformation to discredit him, suggesting that he was monopolizing public discourse, seeking the spotlight and attempting to form his own political faction.
Tsao dismissed the claims as efforts to sow division and provoke conflict with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Tsao, one of the leaders of citizen groups seeking the recall of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, cited recent reports from local media quoting unnamed DPP members expressing concern over the emergence of a so-called “Tsao faction” within the pan-green camp.
Photo: CNA
The reports said that Tsao was drawing excessive media attention, while sidelining other grassroots leaders — a narrative Tsao strongly rejected.
“This is clearly Taiwanese media working with communist China to spread rumors, and cause misunderstandings and disunity between citizen groups and the DPP,” Tsai said.
Tsao also dismissed speculation that he intends to leverage his growing political influence from the recall campaign to launch a presidential bid in the next election.
The KMT lawmakers facing recall are resorting to smear tactics and personal attacks, creating political turmoil in the legislature, and slashing fiscal budgets in ways that jeopardize national security and hinder government operations — all under the guidance of Beijing, he said.
Tsao also denounced the narrative advanced by the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) that President William Lai (賴清德) is “orchestrating the recall effort to eliminate opposition parties so he can rule as a dictator.”
“Perhaps Lai believes that direct involvement in the recall campaign is not an appropriate role for the president,” Tsao said. “But with pro-China parties constantly distorting the facts and slandering him at every turn, I think Lai is being overly modest.”
“We know the behavior of communist China, which only knows how to bully the weak and soft, and fear only those who are strong and willing to stand up to them,” he said. “They see Taiwanese as soft and easily pushed around, so they have kept bullying us.”
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