Recent Scandal Undermines Lai and Exposes DPP Infighting
United Daily News, February 18, 2023
Spokesman Chen Tsung-yen of the Executive Yuan was exposed to have accepted sexual entertainment when he served in local government. Mr. Chen, who as spokesman is supposed to be the “makeup artist” for the executive branch, resigned after 18 days in office, and became the shortest-tenure spokesman. As Mr. Chen has been a very close and favorite associate of Vice President William Lai, and the allegations came with 11-year-old screenshots, court rulings, and other documents from when Mr. Lai served as mayor of Tainan, the timing of this political maneuver was well-executed.
As this move is targeted at Mr. Lai, many people would want to twist the knife to aggravate the situation after the revelation, gossips among the factions of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are incessant, and the undercurrents of political infighting are forceful.
During her ad hoc press conference on February 17, Legislator Chen Wan-hui of the opposition Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) offered relevant evidence showing when Chen Tsung-yen was the director-general of the Department of Information, Tainan City Government, he frequented hostess clubs, where he “took girls out for coffee” (i.e. prostitution). Mr. Chen denied the allegations yesterday, arguing that the specific media smeared his character, and clarified that he has never been investigated by law enforcement officials. But in fewer than five hours, the situation took a sudden turn, and Mr. Chen tendered his resignation.
Between the revelation and Mr. Chen’s resignation, many people tried to make the situation worse. Reportedly, high-level officials learned about Mr. Chen’s scandal before the cabinet reshuffle and asked Mr. Lai, but he was ambivalent. People close to Mr. Lai tried to put out the fire, but incendiary inter-factional battles in the DPP are difficult to cover up.
When Vice President Lai assumed the DPP chairmanship last month, his priorities were to stop underground corruption and solve problems involving academic ethics (plagiarism of thesis). When Speaker Chiu Li-li Tainan City Council was accused of bribery, Chairman Lai asked DPP’s Central Evaluation Committee (CEC) to suspend Chiu’s party rights. As to academic ethics, DPP’s nominees for public offices must sign affidavits, and former Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien, whose master's degrees were revoked because of thesis plagiarism, gave up his petition to the Ministry of Education. Within two days after the DPP’s CEC adopted the clause denying nominations of people with underworld backgrounds, Mr. Chen’s 11-year-old case was revealed.
Naturally, the target of this destructive attack is Mr. Lai, so DPP’s effort to solely exalt Lai is undermined.