Saturday, August 16, 2008

Ex-Taiwan president quits his party

LA Times Article
Former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian resigned from the opposition party Friday after Swiss authorities requested help in an investigation of suspected money laundering involving his family members.

Taiwan's Justice Ministry said in a statement released late Thursday that its Swiss counterpart wanted information on Chen's son, Chen Chih-chung, and daughter-in-law, Huang Jui-ching. The island's authorities said they were cooperating with the inquiry.

Chen's resignation capped a bad week for the former president. On Thursday, he held a news conference to say that his wife, Wu Shu-chen, had transferred some of the leftover money from presidential and mayoral campaigns to offshore accounts.

What a disgrace. When I was in Taiwan in 2006, corruption regarding his family and in-laws was in the news the entire time. It was so bad that Taiwanese people wanted him to resign. He also led he charge to erase Chiang Kai-shek's name from Taiwan's landmarks/monuments and main airport (a lot of people still call it CKS airport).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i was just in Taoyuan International Airport and it is marginally better than LAX. even Chengdu"s terminal is nicer. maybe CKS is ok with the airport not having his name on it.

the newer terminal where EVA flies out of is nicer. but the CX terminal looks pretty dated.

totochi said...

TPE terminal 1 was built in 1979 so it's almost 30 years old. I'm not sure why CX flies out of that terminal. Terminal 2 was built in 2000 so it's much nicer. Eva, China Airlines, and Singapore all fly out of terminal 2.

Mallard_27 said...

The mainland has always called it Taoyuan Airport, and it was originally going to be called Taoyuan Airport anyway. (Terminal 2 is much nicer though). The saddest thing is that Chen Shui-bian has supporters. Unfortunately his policies has led to Taiwan's undoing economically. He really has set Taiwan back on China/Taiwan relations...Ma's work is cut out for him.

totochi said...

Hi Ed!