Taiwan vice premier asked to quit party over diplomatic scandal

May 4, 2008, 11:01 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan Vice Premier Chiou I-jen came under pressure Sunday to quit the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over the island losing 30 million US dollars meant to win diplomatic recognition from Papua New Guinea (PNG).

'For the sake of the party, he should leave the DPP to avoid further damaging its image,' said DPP parliamentarian Lee Chun-yi during an extraordinary national congress of the ruling party, which will soon be in opposition after losing the presidency in March.

Chiou has been questioned by prosecutors over his role in the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry's hiring of two middlemen, identified as Ching Chi-ju, a Taiwanese national with a US passport, and Wu Shih- tsai, an ethnic Taiwanese Singaporean businessman, to persuade PNG to ditch China and recognize Taiwan.

According to Foreign Minister James Huang, Chiou, who then served as secretary-general of the National Security Council, recommended Ching to him in August 2006, saying the man could help Taiwan set up official ties with PNG.

However, instead of winning official recognition from PNG, a 30- million-dollar fund wired to a joint bank account set up in Singapore by Ching and Wu, who served as intermediaries in the secret talks with PNG, went missing along with Ching. Wu was arrested but was released due to lack of evidence.

This week Taipei won an injunction from Singapore High Court to freeze the two men's bank accounts in a Singapore bank and their assets.

The scandal, which came to light 18 days before President Chen Shui-bian steps down, is the latest in a string of scandals concerning Taiwan's secret diplomacy, labelled chequebook diplomacy by China, a rival of Taiwan since the two sides split at the end of the 1949 civil war.

Other DPP bigwigs said Sunday that the scandal has dealt a serious blow to the party, the image of which had already been tarnished by a series of corruption scandals implicating the outgoing Chen government and Chen's family.

'Such a diplomatic bungle by Chiou has further hurt the DPP after the election setbacks of the party,' said Kao Chien-chih, a former DPP lawmaker, referring to the DPP's drubbing in January's parliamentary and March's presidential elections.

DPP lawmaker Trong Tsai, who is running for the DPP chairmanship in the May 11 poll, said the party must act swiftly to control the damage, including referring the case to the anti-corruption department of the DPP for investigation.

Outgoing DPP chairman Frank Hsieh said it was highly improper for Chiou to skip the official mechanism in masterminding a so-called diplomatic recognition case like this. 'We support a thorough probe and legal actions against any guilty parties involved,' he said.