《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Sean Lien donates NT$2m to injured emergency workers

By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien’s campaign office yesterday said that he would donate NT$2 million （US$66,600） to benefit police, firefighters and environmental protection officers injured in Greater Kaohsiung’s gas pipeline blasts.

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The personal donation came after the office’s denial that a NT$100,000 donation announced on Friday was Lien’s.

The office on Friday said in a press release that Lien would cancel his campaign activities for three days and donate the money saved. Disapproving remarks from the public and politicians followed, mostly criticizing the amount of the pledge, considered disproportionate to Lien’s wealth and the amount that his father, former vice president Lien Chan （連戰）, reportedly donated to China after a 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province.

Sean Lien’s spokesperson, Chien Chen-yu （錢震宇）, on Saturday said that the donation was made in the office’s name rather than as Sean Lien’s contribution, adding that the amount to be given by the candidate would be decided after he had a clearer grasp of the casualties suffered by personnel.

Meanwhile, Sean Lien’s new campaign director, KMT Legislator Alex Tsai （蔡正元）, made a “clarification” on Facebook in response to netizens’ remarks about Lien Chan’s donation to China.

“I’ve checked with Lien Chan myself and the NT$10 million said to be his donation was actually a donation made by Yulon Motor Co （裕隆） chairman Kenneth Yen （嚴凱泰）,” Tsai said, emphasizing that Lien Chan was simply doing a favor for Yen by passing on the donation.

“However, then it was reported by the Central News Agency that according to the Chinese Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council that Lien Chan had donated RMB$2.5 million （US$404,500 at current exchange rates） and 10,000 pieces of clothing for the earthquake in 2008,” former Democratic Progressive Party Central Executive Committee member Hung Chi-kune （洪智坤） wrote online after Tsai’s post.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES