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NSC head comes under fire in Q-and-A session
HOT SEAT: DPP lawmakers grilled King Pu-tsung over suspected links with Chinese officials and his alleged involvement in the former MAC deputy head’s ousting
By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
National Security Council Secretary-General King Pu-tsung speaks at a question-and-answer session at the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) yesterday questioned National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) on his alleged meetings with Chinese Embassy Minister Wu Xi (吳璽) last year when King was representative to the US, accusations that King quickly denied.
King made his first visit to the legislature’s question-and-answer session for the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statues Committee meeting yesterday since becoming head of the NSC in March.
With Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers almost completely absent, opposition legislators focused their questioning on allegations that King had overreached his authority in visits to agencies not under his jurisdiction and his role in the ousting of former Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) deputy minister Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀).
Gao asked King whether he, along with with Army Major General Lee Hsien-sheng (黎賢聖), then military attache, had met with Wu to discuss a possible meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Dec. 25 last year.
Gao said Lee had failed lie detector tests involving several questions about China five times. King said that Lee’s floundering on the test seemed to pertain to his own personal affairs, but the investigation is still ongoing.
Gao also said that Chang was ousted because, having attained information about the meeting through the CIA, he reported to Ma about King’s attempt to establish private relations with China, a move that had “touched a nerve with” King.
King denied that he had met with a Chinese official in the US and that he had meddled with the personnel issues of the MAC.
However, the NSC secretary-general stumbled on a question by People First Party Legislator Thomas Lee (李桐豪) about the NSC’s wiretapping of Chang.
King stuttered when he said that, based on his understanding, “[Chang’s] case involved many people, who were indeed wiretapped, but no such action was undertaken against Chang himself.”
He added that the person who did the wiretapping did not conduct the surveillance in Taiwan.
Gao later told reporters that King had met with the Chinese envoy twice and the clandestine rendezvous was not only about a Ma-Xi meeting, but had also touched upon a potential cross-strait mutual trust mechanism.
source: Taipei Times
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