KMT's evil way to kill Taiwan spirit

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All took money: Chen’s daughter

OUTBURST: Cornered by reporters near her office, Chen Hsing-yu said she doubted any Taiwanese politician had ever declared all of his or her campaign funding

By Ko Shu-ling, Meggie Lu and Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 1

The daughter of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) accused Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members yesterday of taking money from her father when they were running for public office but not declaring it.

Describing the money laundering scandal enveloping her father as the result of “political strife,” a visibly angry Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) called the honesty of all politicians — both in the DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — into question, saying she wondered whether they ever truthfully declared their political donations or leftover campaign funds.

“Oh, yes, the KMT wants us dead. Chen Shui-bian is their No. 1 enemy,” she said. “If Chen Shui-bian were dead, [President] Ma Ying-jeou would not have to do anything and would easily get elected. It doesn’t matter that his approval rating is as low as 1 percent or he sells out Taiwan to China.”

Chen Hsing-yu, known for her quick temper and sharp tongue, lambasted DPP members she said had taken money from her father but now pretended to be clean. She singled out former premiers Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as well as Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊).

Her outburst came in response to questions from reporters as she headed into her office yesterday morning.

The former president created a political shockwave last Thursday when he apologized for failing to fully declare his campaign funds and for wiring a large sum overseas, while denying embezzling money from the government or being involved in money laundering. He said his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) had been in charge of the couple’s finances and that he knew nothing about them.

Chen Shui-bian’s office later said that more than US$20 million had been sent abroad.

Prosecutors have said they believe Wu used figureheads, including her husband, brother, son, daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law, to wire money overseas.

Saying her father had told her to keep quiet, Chen Hsing-yu was trying to call her mother on her cellphone to tell her that she was going public even as she yelled at reporters that the alleged scandal was a political attack on her family.

“It is OK that I die, but I cannot die for nothing,” she said. “Before I die, I want the public to know who took the money.”

She criticized the campaign finance laws as “unreasonable” and said that it was not fair that her father was taking all the blame.

She said that all she knew about the scandal was that all the money that had been wired overseas came from her father’s surplus campaign funds, but that she did not know if money laundering was involved.

When asked about why her parents wired the money abroad, she said: “Do you think it was legal to keep it here?” before asking if reporters knew why and where KMT officials had sent their money overseas.

She also shouted at a reporter who asked her why the money had not been deposited under her parents’ names, but under those of her and her brother and other family members.

“Do you think that would work? If you ask around, people will tell you they always use figureheads,” she said.

She said she had not known there was an overseas bank account in her name until she read about it in the newspapers. She said she had never thought she had so much money.

“If I had that much money, I could have just stayed home. Why do I have to work so hard?” she said before stepping into her office.

Meanwhile, Hsieh’s office issued a statement denying that he had taken money from Chen Shui-bian during “this year’s presidential election,” adding that it was natural for party members to help raise funds for candidates.

A staffer for Su denied that he had ever taken money from the former president, but thanked him for his campaigning efforts.

Chen Chu said she had received “resources distributed by the party headquarters” when she was running for Kaohsiung mayor in 2006. She said it had been the former president’s duty to raise funds for the DPP given his seniority, but his problem now had nothing to do with party fundraising.

The DPP’s Taipei chapter decided yesterday to suspend the party rights of Wu, her son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚). They have 15 days to appeal the decision with the DPP’s Central Review Committee.

DPP Secretary-General Wang Tuoh (王拓), speaking on behalf of the party, said that if there were widespread problems in declaring leftover campaign funds across party lines, then the law should be amended to resolve the problem.

However, the DPP did not know about individual fund declarations, Wang said.

Meanwhile the DPP caucus convener and financial management director Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said most of what Chen Hsing-yu said was true, and that he had received fundraising help from her father.

However, in regards to political contributions, Chen Shui-bian had opened the biggest Pandora’s box in politics, he said.

Every political party and figure has problems of this nature — the problem was not who received money from whom, but that there was no firm set of laws to regulate fundraising, Ker said.

In an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that she expected the party’s anti-corruption committee to investigate all members who may have involvement in corruption.

The committee has the authority to initiate investigations and to rule in any corruption cases, Tsai said after a meeting with DPP representatives yesterday. In addition to the former president, the committee would “investigate all the cases that occurred in the past,” so that the DPP could be answerable to the public, she said.

She also said the DPP will rely on small donations in the future

Meanwhile, Ker said that while the Chen Shui-bian scandal would hurt fundraising efforts in the short run, the party would continue to push its small-donations program, since it would be beneficial in the long run, the Central News Agency reported.

In related news, Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien told reporters yesterday that any public official found to have helped the former president deposit large sums of money abroad will be punished.

“The Control Yuan will investigate any crimes or malfeasance committed by government officials, but we must discuss how and when we should intervene [in the investigation of this case],” he said.

“Former president Chen’s case involves not only the former president but also the former director-general of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau [Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂)] and may also involve other government officials,” he said.

“Those who have helped Chen with his bad deeds should also be brought to justice,” he said.
　

Tibet activists accuse China of increased repression

AGENCIES, BEIJING
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 1

China has stepped up repression in its ethnic Tibetan regions to prevent any protests during the Beijing Olympics, an activist group said yesterday.

“To prevent potentially embarrassing protests inside Tibet, China has turned large parts of Tibet into a virtual prison for the duration of the Games,” Matt Whitticase, spokesman for the Free Tibet Campaign, said in a statement.

China poured security forces into its Tibetan areas after riots in March to quell the unrest, and the Free Tibet Campaign said the military build-up was accompanied by policies aimed at punishing activist monks and monasteries.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not have any immediate comment.

But an editorial in the state-run China Daily said foreign countries had been unfairly critical of Beijing’s treatment of its ethnic minorities: “Many should feel ashamed of their groundless accusations once they know what the Chinese government has done for ethnic minorities.”

China is planning to build six new railway lines in and around Tibet that will go into operation before 2020, the Ministry of Railways said in an announcement on its Web site on Saturday.

It said two of the new lines would run from Lhasa to other areas in Tibet, while the other four would be built in other provinces on the Tibetan plateau.

In other developments, the government received 77 applications from 149 people who wanted to hold protests during the Olympics, but all were withdrawn, suspended or rejected, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

The complaints ranged from labor and medical disputes to inadequate welfare, it said.

Citing a spokesman for the Public Security Bureau, Xinhua said 74 of the applications were withdrawn because the problems “were properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations.” Two other applications were suspended because they did not provide sufficient data and one was rejected because it violated laws against demonstrations and protests, the spokesman said.

Human rights groups and families of people who have applied for permits to protest say some were taken away afterward by security agents, prompting critics to accuse officials of using the plan as a trap to draw potential protesters to their attention.

Wang Wei (王偉), vice president of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, yesterday defended the protest plan to journalists.

“Many problems have not been solved, not even by the United Nations, and some want them to be solved during the Olympic Games, putting pressure on the International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Olympic Committee,” Wang said. “This is not realistic ... We think that you do not really understand China’s reality.”

A China has stepped up repression in its ethnic Tibetan regions to prevent any protests during the Beijing Olympics, an activist group said yesterday.

“To prevent potentially embarrassing protests inside Tibet, China has turned large parts of Tibet into a virtual prison for the duration of the Games,” Matt Whitticase, spokesman for the Free Tibet Campaign, said in a statement.

China poured security forces into its Tibetan areas after riots in March to quell the unrest, and the Free Tibet Campaign said the military build-up was accompanied by policies aimed at punishing activist monks and monasteries.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not have any immediate comment.

But an editorial in the state-run China Daily said foreign countries had been unfairly critical of Beijing’s treatment of its ethnic minorities: “Many should feel ashamed of their groundless accusations once they know what the Chinese government has done for ethnic minorities.”

China is planning to build six new railway lines in and around Tibet that will go into operation before 2020, the Ministry of Railways said in an announcement on its Web site on Saturday.

It said two of the new lines would run from Lhasa to other areas in Tibet, while the other four would be built in other provinces on the Tibetan plateau.

In other developments, the government received 77 applications from 149 people who wanted to hold protests during the Olympics, but all were withdrawn, suspended or rejected, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

The complaints ranged from labor and medical disputes to inadequate welfare, it said.

Citing a spokesman for the Public Security Bureau, Xinhua said 74 of the applications were withdrawn because the problems “were properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations.” Two other applications were suspended because they did not provide sufficient data and one was rejected because it violated laws against demonstrations and protests, the spokesman said.

Human rights groups and families of people who have applied for permits to protest say some were taken away afterward by security agents, prompting critics to accuse officials of using the plan as a trap to draw potential protesters to their attention.

Wang Wei (王偉), vice president of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, yesterday defended the protest plan to journalists.

“Many problems have not been solved, not even by the United Nations, and some want them to be solved during the Olympic Games, putting pressure on the International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Olympic Committee,” Wang said. “This is not realistic ... We think that you do not really understand China’s reality.”

Also See: China confiscates Bibles from US Christians

A newer KMT method of torture

Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 8

Although there is no historical evidence that it was invented by the Chinese, it may be appropriate to note that one of the oldest forms of coercion is known as “Chinese water torture.” By continuously dripping water on a victim’s head over an extended period of time, it is said that the technique can drive a victim insane.

Nowadays, it seems like those drops of water are being applied to Taiwan’s forehead, with each droplet taxing the nation’s identity a little more each time. What’s worse is that — like a real victim of torture — Taiwanese appear to be strapped to a chair and fated to a long period of suffering. And the torturer is a tag team: the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

Drip: “Chinese Taipei.” Drop: “Chunghwa Post.” Drip: No WHO or UN application under the name “Taiwan.” Drop: Our elected president is but a “Mr.” Drip: The possible renaming of National Democracy Memorial Hall, after the murderous dictator the monument was built for. And drop: In the Dominican Republic over the weekend, where President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) delegation was referred to — for all to see and without as much as a complaint — as “China, Taiwan.”

This latest instance, however, may just be too much to bear, as it was not only unacceptable but also an insult to the intelligence. Queried by reporters about the name, a Taiwanese embassy official in Santo Domingo (the ambassador could not be bothered to meet the media) said that “China, Taiwan” had no ideological connotation because when people in the Dominican Republic say “China,” they mean “Taiwan.”

National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起), who was part of the delegation and who himself seems to find it difficult to differentiate between the two countries, echoed those comments.

Not only are we supposed to swallow that asinine explanation, but Su and the official’s comments were insulting to the people in our allied country, who are said to be unable to tell the difference between Taiwan and the country next door, in the glare of the Olympic Games media frenzy as we speak, 267 times the size of Taiwan and whose population is about 57 times bigger. To think that people in the Caribbean cannot tell the difference between the two countries is condescending and fails to explain how using “China, Taiwan” could help those supposedly ignorant people differentiate between Taipei and Beijing.

At the minimum, it is no way to treat a diplomatic ally who has stood by us for more than 60 years. At the worst, it is consistent with a blurring of the lines the Ma administration has undertaken and the confusing signals that make it increasingly difficult for the rest of the world to tell the difference between Taiwan and China.

If those signals continue, the world could very well reach the conclusion that Taiwan just doesn’t care whether people can tell the difference between the two countries, which can only result in further isolation for Taiwanese.

Before the penultimate drop drives us insane, let’s give those straps a good yank and get up from that chair. The torturers have had enough fun.

Ex-first couple and son named suspects

‘money laundering’: The justice ministry said it had expanded its cooperation with countries where Chen Shui-bian’s family was suspected of wiring its funds

By Rich Chang
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 3



Chen Chun-ying, the wife of former president Chen Shui-bian’s brother-in-law, is rushed to hospital after she fainted during questioning by the Special Investigation Panel of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei yesterday.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES



Prosecutors yesterday named former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), Chen’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), Chen’s daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) and Wu’s brother Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂) as the five main suspects in their investigation into money laundering.

Prosecutor Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮) said that prosecutors had summoned Wu Ching-mao and his wife Chen Chun-ying (陳俊英) for questioning on suspicion that their overseas accounts served as the depository for the funds the former first couple remitted out of the country.

However, the questioning came to an abrupt end at around 5pm when Chen Chun-ying passed out during the interview, Chu said.

Chen Chun-ying was sent to National Taiwan University Hospital for treatment.

Wu Ching-mao, who accompanied his wife to the hospital, told reporters that his wife tried to commit suicide by taking a number of sleeping pills because she felt had been “unfairly” treated during the interview.

“Prosecutors asked her [Chen Chun-ying] to admit doing things she did not do and refused her request to have lawyers present during the questioning.”

— Wu Ching-mao, brother of former first lady Wu Shu-jen


“Prosecutors asked her to admit doing things she did not do and refused her request to have lawyers present during the questioning,” Wu Ching-mao said.

Chu said the interview of Chen Chun-ying was conducted in accordance with the law.

Chu said that Wu Ching-mao detailed to prosecutors the process they used to deposit or transfer money for the former first family over the years.

The prosecutor added that former state-owned China Steel Corp (中鋼) chairman Lin Wen-yuan (林文淵) was also summoned for questioning yesterday morning as a witness.

Lin was in charge of Chen Shui-bian’s campaign funds during the 2000 presidential election.

Lin left the prosecutors’ office at 12pm.

Chu said prosecutors learned that Chen had four undisclosed bank accounts used for political donations for the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections — three for 2000 and one for 2004.

The former president admitted last Thursday that he failed to truthfully declare funds collected from two mayoral and two presidential elections between 1993 and 2004 and that his wife had wired surplus campaign contributions overseas.

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office announced on Saturday that Chen Shui-bian and Wu Ching-mao had been barred from leaving the country. Wu Shu-jen has been prohibited from leaving since May.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said yesterday it was cooperating with law enforcement authorities in several countries to probe Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) overseas accounts.

“The MOJ is expanding its legal assistance with several countries. The ministry not only has cooperated with Swiss authorities to investigate Chen’s accounts there, but it has also contacted Singapore, the US and other countries where the former first family had allegedly wired funds,” Deputy Minister of Justice Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) told a press conference yesterday.

He said the ministry was determined to clear all bank accounts the former first family opened overseas and to retrieve the funds.

The deputy minister asked businesspeople who know where the Chen family’s money came from to report the matter to prosecutors, and prosecutors would handle them according to the Witness Protection Law (證人保護法) and grant them a NT$10 million (US$319,000) reward.

He also urged businesspeople involved in the scandal to come out and act as state witnesses.

Meanwhile, Taipei Prosecutor Ching Chi-jen (慶啟人), who traveled to Switzerland to trace the alleged Chen family funds, returned to the country on Sunday night.

“I offered legal documents involving Chen and the former first family to Swiss prosecutors to assist in their investigation into suspected money laundering, and I also expressed the hope that Switzerland would return the money to Taiwan,” Ching told reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Huang said prosecutors were also investigating Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂), a former chief of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, on suspicion of concealing information about the suspected money laundering.

Prosecutors were still questioning Huang as of press time.

Prosecutors on Sunday asked immigration officials to notify them if they found Yeh trying to leave the country.

Yeh had said on Sunday that the bureau’s Money Laundering Prevention Center had received information from the Cayman Islands in late January that the former president’s daughter-in-law had a bank account there and that it was likely being used for money laundering.

In related news, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday it would not rule out filing suit if it found any trading irregularities in the auction of Changhwa Bank (彰化銀行) shares in 2005.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) has accused the former first family of taking bribes from Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) in exchange for Changhwa shares.

As a result of the auction, Taishin Financial won a majority of the seats on Changhwa Bank’s board, with a 22.5 percent stake, compared with the government’s 18 percent.

A high-ranking ministry official said on condition of anonymity that he believed investigators would soon ask the ministry for trading documents to see if there were any irregularities in the transaction.

“The ministry and failed bidders could lodge lawsuits if the auction turned out to be tainted,” the official told reporters. “It would be up to the court to settle the dispute. No one can predict the outcome.”

The official, however, said it was unlikely that the Changhwa deal would be invalidated.

“People who played unfairly would not be able to shake off their legal responsibility,” the official said. “They would be unfit to chair the company, but the company’s dealings would probably remain unaffected.”

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CRYSTAL HSU

TSU to rally against China policy

‘Mistake’: The party said that the administration’s adoption of China-friendly economic policies was a ‘flawed’ strategy that had seriously hurt the country

By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 3

The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) is set to proceed with a demonstration tomorrow to protest against the government’s pro-China economic policies.

TSU Secretary-General Lin Jhi-jia (林志嘉) said the demonstration would be a protest against the administration’s China-friendly economic policy, which he called a “mistake.”

“The policy, which is irresponsible in nature, has caused the economy to bleed and seriously hurt the country,” he said.

As the party has suspended the party rights of Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛), a TSU member, for her endorsement of the administration’s liberal economic policy toward China, Lin said his party would wait until the demonstration was over to “carefully consider” possibly early next month how to deal with Lai.

There have been calls for Lai’s resignation from the post or expulsion from the party.

POLL

Citing a survey conducted by its opinion center, Lin said that most people considered the administration’s cross-strait economic policy was flawed and that his party was duty-bound to reflect public opinion.

The survey, which questioned 1,029 adults around the country between Aug. 12 and Aug. 15, showed that more than 72 percent of respondents believed the recent relaxation of cross-strait regulations would benefit big businesses more than the general public.

The policies included loosening the regulation restricting a listed company’s investment in China to a maximum of 40 percent of its net worth and banning Taiwanese companies from setting up 12-inch wafer fabs in China.

The poll also found that nearly 38 percent of the people polled said the administration had eased cross-strait policy too hastily, while only 12 percent said it should pick up the pace.

More than 41 percent said the deregulatory measures had not helped the stock market, but nearly 31 percent said they did.

More than 46 percent of those polled said the economy had worsened since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May, while about 11 percent said it had improved.

Nearly 35 percent of respondents said their quality of life had deteriorated since May. Only 6 percent said it had improved.

However, not all the respondents were unhappy with the administration’s cross-strait policy.

Nearly 48 percent said the relaxation of cross-strait measures had helped the economy, while 35 percent said it had had little effect or none at all.

MIXED VIEWS

Fifty-six percent said the measures helped improve cross-strait relations, but about 31 percent said they did not.

In addition, 45 percent said they were generally satisfied with the new measures. About 37 percent said they were unhappy with them.

Regarding Ma’s performance over the past three months, nearly 43 percent found it satisfactory, while about 42 percent said they were not satisfied.
　

‘One dream’ Beijing can’t deliver

By Cao Changqing 曹長青
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 8

The Chinese government went to great lengths to show China’s best face to the world by having a large-scale Olympics opening ceremony that cost a lot of money, with loads of fireworks, lots of color and droves of people. Many Chinese Internet users, however, criticized the ceremony for being a big mishmash, even saying the ceremony resembled “an upscale version of a North Korean group calisthenics performance” and that was “overly large with too many people involved and was devoid of content and human nature.”

Some said all the colors and modern lights used during the ceremony merely turned it into “an elegy to China’s superficial and extravagant past,” while others said the huge sums of money spent only served to make “the most tacky opening ceremony in the history of the Olympics.”

After seeing the sheer size of the opening ceremony and the large-scale performance, one cannot deny that director Zhang Yimou (張藝謀) really did go to a lot of effort in planning and choreographing the event. Zhang gave attention to every last detail and did a very professional job. Why then has Beijing’s opening ceremony received so much criticism? The real reason is that Zhang failed to understand the true spirit of the Olympics.

The official theme of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, “The Power of the Dream,” and the symphony Summon the Heroes perfectly represented the spirit of the Olympics, which, among other things, is the spirit of freedom, realizing one’s dreams and becoming an individual hero.

Zhang may not understand the Olympic spirit, but he does have a profound understanding of the spirit of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) government. During the opening ceremony, Zhang showcased the knowledge that Chinese have had spoon-fed to them since birth, using historical imagery such as the four great inventions of ancient China and the Silk Road. Zhang also used rows and rows of people to form the Chinese character for peace (he, 和). This clearly and skillfully put forward the exact message Hu wanted to express: a message of a “harmonious society” and a “peaceful rise to power” that was in perfect harmony with China’s official ideological line.

Zhang primarily focused on showing the pride Chinese feel about their country and themselves as a people — not the Olympic spirit. As a result, no matter how spectacular the lighting, colors and digital technology Zhang used, and irrespective of how many people he had line up in neat, geometric formations, shouting at the top of their lungs, he was still unable to inject the Olympic spirit of freedom into the opening ceremony.

Regardless of how painstakingly Zhang worked in planning the ceremony, the Chinese culture and history that he tried to express was very hard even for Chinese with an understanding of Chinese culture and history to grasp, let alone the non-Chinese people watching the show. And even if some people watching could clearly understand the content and its meaning, because it was devoid of spirit and soul, no matter how technically perfect it was, all they could do was stand in the crowd and look on at the “fun.” However, the opening ceremony’s “fun” was not fun in the true sense of the word, nor was it pleasing to look at.

The entire opening ceremony was painfully slow and monotonous, and apart from the fireworks displays that punctuated the show at appropriate intervals, the show had no single point capable of moving anybody in the audience.

On special occasions such as the Olympics, especially when people are watching the event on their television sets, they do not want or need the profound thought of philosophers or the research of historians; what they want is music and performances that resonate deep within their hearts.

The music and songs used at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta moved people on a deep level and made them want to see the Games for themselves. The music and theme song of the Beijing Olympics, on the other hand, were very bland in comparison and were so boring that they almost put the audience to sleep.

The slogan of the Beijing Olympics is “One World One Dream.” Let’s leave aside the fact that this is a typical empty slogan — the only dream common to all mankind is freedom, the one dream Beijing does all it can to eliminate — but even if it made sense, the opening ceremony did nothing to express the main theme of the slogan. There was no expression of “one dream,” nor of “one world.” It was all a self-obsessed attempt to place China at the center of the world. It was, however, very Chinese to see this poor and backward dictatorship portray China as a paradise characterized by harmony between heaven and man since the beginning of time.

Cao Changqing is an independent political commentator.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON




　

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