Many in Taiwan have said, give the Palace Museum treasures back to China in return for a declaration of an Independent Taiwan. While others have said the treasures help ensure Taiwan is not bombed to kingdom come.
Chen Shui-bian was successful in losing all credibility the DPP might have had. I haven’t seen them regaining much since he went away. Now his aquittal loses any credibility the KMT might have ever had. Perfect. Neither of the country’s main parties has any credibility. As it should be. Tin-pot banana republic buffoons – it’s now OFFICIAL! 
This whole CSB ordeal isn’t over yet, nor is it official.
This whole CSB ordeal isn’t over yet, nor is it official.[/quote]
Ooooh! Then I stand corrected! More a case of “everybody already knew Taiwanese politicians are tinpot banana republic buffoons. Now its becoming more and more clear that they’re right.” 
Mucha, thanks for the great articles. Where is the link to the China Times 2009 piece? Did you translate that?
Oh dear, no. There are two sources for it:
datelinetaipei.wordpress.com/2009/12/
kmt.org.tw/english/page.aspx … &anum=7427
Interestingly, the KMT translation of the first paragraph mentions nothing about officials not being liable for criminal prosecution. It only mentions that the public cannot be charge with bribery if they bribe an official to do something that is not part of his official duties. The original Chinese is in the first link.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]Oh dear, no. There are two sources for it:
datelinetaipei.wordpress.com/2009/12/
kmt.org.tw/english/page.aspx … &anum=7427
Interestingly, the KMT translation of the first paragraph mentions nothing about officials not being liable for criminal prosecution. It only mentions that the public cannot be charge with bribery if they bribe an official to do something that is not part of his official duties. The original Chinese is in the first link.[/quote]
the people who allegedly “bribed” CSB cannot be charged, and they weren’t.
the only reason KMT “may” let CSB lose is because his involvement in DPP will cause them to break apart, thereby benefitting KMT candidates.
Yes, we know that. Thanks for the reiteration.
Don’t kid yourself there are still lots of people out there who think that regardless of any laws and facts, and regardless of the fact that all the other politicians also enrich themselves in questionable ways that Chen in particular deserves to be jailed and deserves to be punished because he portrayed himself as the good guy but instead just played it for what it was worth.
I don’t think the issues here involve virtue so much as they do virtu. But no, virtu is not the right word, either. I guess the issues involve something even further removed from personal ethics or morals; maybe they involve a personal or party version of virtu:
[quote=“ac_dropout”]. . . the DPP are a bunch of boy scouts in comparison [i.e., to the KMT–my note (cj)].[/quote] China Post = Lying Blue Piece of Filth - #18 by ac_dropout
[quote=“ac_dropout”]I don’t know what the surprise is all about. It is pretty common knowledge the DPP don’t have the experience to pull off anything without serious set backs. Even a simple graft is fudged up.[/quote] A-bian's moneyman caught gambling in Korean casino - #13 by ac_dropout
But anyway, the KMT is going to have a judicial reform rally:
[quote]The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) has decided to include the theme of “pushing judicial reforms and fighting corruption” in a scheduled mass rally in Taipei this Sunday in Taipei.[/quote] chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/nati … KMT-to.htm
Sorry, double post.
am i right to say that the current situation is that it is fairly concrete that the first family is guilty of transferring money overseas, of which there is no indication or suggestion that this money is going to be used in protecting taiwan’s sovereignty, and which therefore points towards likely embezzelment by the involved members. however, despite of widespread assumption that ex president chen shui bian is either aware of it at the first instance, is a participant of it or the actual orchestrator, this assumption remains an assumption with or without prejudice, that hard evidence is just lacking in directly connecting chen shui bian personally with the transfer of money overseas?
Here’s what the Taipei Times said that the court said:
[quote]Citing insufficient proof, the Tapei District Court yesterday acquitted former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), of charges that they laundered money and took bribes from bankers in exchange for help manipulating bank mergers.
. . .
The ruling said that although Chen received the money, he was unable to use his presidential authority to decide merger plans and as such, the money should be seen as a political donation.
Chou’s ruling added that since the money the Chen family received was not a bribe, bank officials who later helped the family transfer the funds overseas therefore did not violate money laundering rules, because money laundering only takes place when transferring money resulting from crime or corruption.[/quote] taipeitimes.com/News/front/a … 2003487820
This should be no surprise. The judge involved in this ruling (一審) is pro DPP. He had previously ruled in favor of CSB.
This is unfortunately far from over. The prosecutors are going into 二審.
I personally believe CSB is guilty as charged.
Stick to short sentences. It will help both you and the rest of us understand your point.
Yes, money was transfered overseas. Are they guilty of this? A strange question. I have wired money overseas but there is no guilt unless the money was illegally obtained and/or was transfered to avoid paying taxes.
As for Chen keeping the funds, the way the law works in Taiwan is that candidates get to keep all political donations even after a campaign. Yes, crazy and ripe for abuse but that is the law and the system. So there is no embezzlement. Plenty of other politicians have done exactly what the first family did: wire money that was political donations out of the country and into multiple accounts. For the biggest of the big see James Soong, who squirreled away more than a billion. What happened to him? Paid a measly fine for tax avoidance and got to run as president.
Again, I’d like to see the system overhauled. But until then focusing on Chen does nothing but allow the rot to creep in elsewhere.
How? I don’t mean hoe is he morally culpable, but legally? What laws did he break? The judge was correct. Even the first trial could not show that Chen knew about the transfers of money.
As for corruption, again, by law he was not engaged in a violation of his presidential duties. Absurd yes, but if this is the standard interpretation of the anti-corruption laws by the Ministry of Justice and the SIP then it has to be way the law is interpreted for Chen.
So how is he guilty within Taiwan’s legal system? And please stick to this one case as I am quite certain he is guilty of fraud, forgery, tax evasion, and possibly bribery in some other cases.
The reacting of the KMT to this is predictably disgusting. The courts should act in the public good (somehow, the public good is served by convicting a man who is apparently NOT guilty and IS served by not allowing him to prepare a fair defense in the one – of three – trials in which he was found guilty) and the voters should for some strange reason punish the DPP because the courts TWICE have now ruled former-president Chen NOT GUILTY in an era in which the KMT has full control of the government. It seems that the KMT will not be happy until it has fully instituted a regime of Blue-terror against its political opponents here in Taiwan (and abroad?)…
Disgusting!!!
Also disgusting, double jeopardy…
I believe he is guilty as much as Al Capone was guilty of mafia murders. If you think there is no bribery and embazzlement involved with 二次金改案, then please state your reasons as well. Just as Al Capone couldn’t be convicted of murder in the court of law, CSB was ruled not guilty (of 二次金改案) by the first judge due to technicalities of the game.
CSB allegedly took NT 610,000,000 for 二次金改. He was ruled not guilty by the merit that he allegedly took the money as the President while the President has no jurisdiction over bank mergers. There is no denying the fact that he took the money from the alleged banking families.
二次金改案
phshangbao.com/show.aspx?id=53752&cid=28
"二次金改案于2009年12月24日偵結起訴，是特偵組依貪污、洗錢、證交法及背信等罪，起訴陳水扁夫婦等家庭成員、國泰金副董座蔡鎮宇、前元大集團總裁馬志玲和兒子馬維建及馬維辰、中信金少東辜仲諒及辜仲兄弟等金控業者共21人，并請求法院沒收陳水扁夫婦向國泰及元大等金控業者收取的6億1000萬元新台幣賄款。
台北地院指出，陳水扁獲判無罪主要原因，是檢方認定陳水扁利用“總統”身分向金控公司收賄，因此觸犯貪污治罪條例中的職務上收賄罪，但合議庭依“憲法” 規定、大法官解釋、憲法學者研究結果，都認為“憲法”規定“總統”職權采列舉方式，并不包括金融合并事項，因此判決扁無罪。"
The same judge was involved in both “not guilty” rulings. This judge is known for his pro DPP stance. I don’t think the KMT still has full control, but one judge isn’t going to make a difference. Keep in mind, there is no denying the fact he took the money. They just have to link the money to something because that money didn’t come from no where (no shit sherlock!).
TaipeiD – So, it is ok for Chiu Yi and the KMT to force to a change to a judge of their liking, not allow former President Chen to adequately prepare his defense and thus secure a guilty verdict??? Do you have any proof that this decision was politically motivated??? I see no evidence that this decision is anything but an application of the evidence and the law. Unless you assume ALL monies received by ALL politicians in Taiwan are “bribes” as opposed to “political constributions.”
As far as I understand, once they took office it’s no longer considered “political contribution” when money is presented.
There is no defending CSB. The last thing DPP (party of the poor people) want to be associated with is a bunch of elitist banking families.