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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Detectives not involved in running mate pick: Tsai
Left to right, Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） Legislator Yeh Yi-jin, DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen and Tainan Mayor William Lai wave to supporters yesterday at the opening of Yeh and Tsai’s joint campaign office in Tainan. Photo: Wang Han-ping, Taipei Times
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文） yesterday rebutted media reports that the party had hired private detectives to spy on all her potential running mates before making a final decision.
“[Whoever wrote about] the detectives has a far too rich an imagination, but we did try to have a more in-depth understanding of all the possible candidates; this is something that we should do in an election,” Tsai said when taking questions from the media before attending an accountants’ event in Taipei.
A story in the Chinese-language China Times Weekly magazine published on Thursday said that, in order to avoid problems like those surrounding former minister of the interior Su Jia-chyuan （蘇嘉全）, who was Tsai’s running mate in the 2012 presidential election, the DPP hired private investigators.
Su’s family house, built on a plot of land classified as “for agricultural use” in Changjhi Township （長治）, Pingtung County, was found to have failed to meet the criteria for building a house on farmland. Su later donated the house to the township office.
The article went on to say that the DPP had investigated the financial affairs and personal relationships of each potential candidate.
However, Tsai denied that the party’s attempt to enhance “understanding” of potential candidates was to prevent another controversy, nor did the party probe into potential candidates’ personal relationships.
“There was absolutely no private detective involved,” she said.
When reporters pressed Tsai, asking if the “understanding” included if potential candidates might be involved in any sex scandals, Tsai said: “Let’s stop, do not keep asking about this. I believe that we have picked the best candidate.”
DPP spokesperson Juan Chao-hsiung （阮昭雄） issued a statement slamming the China Times Weekly report as “baseless,” adding that it would make a good novel, but not a news story.
“The report alleged that Tsai had hired private detectives to investigate possible running mates and deliberately announced her running mate while [Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） presidential candidate] Eric Chu （朱立倫） was on a trip to the US,” Juan said. “It is totally imagined with no factual basis.”
Juan said that the magazine reporter, surnamed Liu （劉）, has never attended DPP news events and no one in the party knows Liu.
“The magazine should implement strict standards on news quality and immediately correct false reports,” Juan said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
