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Su supports Tsai lawsuit over Yu
Chang ‘smears’
By Chris Wang and Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff reporters
From left to right, Democratic
Progressive Party legislators Huang Wei-cher, Pan Men-an and Tsai Chi-chang hold
a press conference in Taipei yesterday to criticize the government for
inconsistent handling of investigations related to the Yu Chang Biologics Co, or
TaiMed Inc, case.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday threw his support behind former DPP
chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) lawsuit against government officials over
corruption allegations in the run-up to the presidential election and demanded
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) apologize for his involvement in what he called a
smear campaign.
Speaking on the sidelines of a youth forum at the DPP national headquarters, Su
said he supported Tsai’s legal actions and hoped the judiciary would investigate
and rule on the case as soon as possible.
Tsai was cleared last week of any wrongdoing in the case, in which she was
accused of pressing the state-owned National Development Fund to invest in Yu
Chang Biologics Co (宇昌生技股份有限公司), now known as TaiMed Biologics Inc (中裕新藥股份有限公司),
when she was vice premier.
Tsai filed a lawsuit against Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and former Council
of Economic Planning and Development minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) on Monday over
the pair’s allegations in the run-up to the Jan. 14 presidential election that
Tsai had played an improper role in the formation of the biotechnology company.
Su accused Ma, who enjoys presidential immunity from prosecution, of ordering
his running-mate, Wu, who was premier at the time, to launch administrative
investigations against Tsai with incorrect information and outrageous statistics
cited by certain ministerial officials.
The judiciary and prosecutors were also brought in to investigate Tsai during
the campaign, while all the lawsuits filed by the DPP against the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) and Ma’s re-election campaign were dismissed, Su added.
“Those who used smear tactics were not held accountable, while the law failed to
serve justice to the victims,” Su said. “That is why the party supports Tsai’s
lawsuit and demands Ma acknowledge his mistakes and apologize. We also hope the
judiciary takes the shortest possible amount of time to complete the legal
proceedings of this case.”
The DPP’s Central Standing Committee reached a resolution last week to establish
a working group under the party’s Policy Research Committee to gather and
analyze information on all legal cases and prosecutions involving DPP members,
including Tsai and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), in an effort to “reverse
the miscarriage of justice.”
In response, KMT spokesperson Ma Wei-kuo (馬瑋國) said Su was the one who should
apologize, for making groundless accusations against and smearing Ma Ying-jeou,
who doubles as KMT chairman.
Meanwhile, KMT Policy Committee chief Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) accused Tsai of
manipulating the judicial system for political purposes.
“The KMT respected the judicial decision that cleared Tsai’s name and we hope
the DPP and Tsai do not apply a double-standard policy concerning judicial
verdicts,” Lin said.
Tsai should “stop before going too far” and refrain from wasting public
resources on the case, Lin said.
“How could they say on the one hand that Tsai was proved innocent, while on the
other hand, they were dissatisfied with the dismissal of the lawsuits against Wu
and Liu,” Lin said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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