Declassified records prove Tsai's innocence: DPP

Central News Agency  2011-12-12  Taipei, Dec. 12 (CNA) Government documents declassified Monday show that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen was not guilty of any irregularities in endorsing government investment in a biotech joint venture in 2007, a DPP spokesman said Monday. The two documents, dated Feb. 9, 2007 and March 21, 2007, proved that the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) had smeared Tsai by labeling a National Development Fund (NDF) investment in Yu Chang Biologics Co. (now known as TaiMed Biologic Co.) as a scandal, said party spokesman Chen Chi-mai. The files show that Tsai, as vice premier of the DPP administration in 2007, signed the documents to seal a deal with American biotech firm Genentech on the development of a new AIDS drug known as Anti-CD4 and its third-stage clinical trial. According to the documents, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, was seeking a partner in Taiwan for the joint venture, and the government-run NDF agreed to invest up to US$20 million if Genentech based the new joint venture and most of its research and manufacturing in Taiwan. The NDF investment was approved by the Cabinet one week after the first document was submitted. The KMT had accused Tsai of a conflict of interest for signing off on the investment and then becoming the company's chairperson just months later after stepping down as vice premier. Chen said the documents showed that Tsai, in endorsing the deal, was simply fulfilling her duties as vice premier, and he described the KMT's accusations as "character assassination" aimed at upsetting Tsai's presidential bid. DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang said Tsai Ing-wen signed the documents dutifully as a vice premier in her belief that the investment would help bolster Taiwan's biomedical development and research. She stepped down as vice premier in May 2007 and did not join TaiMed until three months later at the invitation by former Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh, Academia Sinica President Chi-Huey Wong and world-renowned AIDS drug expert David Ho, the legislator insisted. Meanwhile, the former head of the Executive Yuan's Legal Affairs Committee, Chen Mei-ling, said Monday that Tsai Ing-wen consulted the committee after leaving her post to see if joining TaiMed would violate the government's "revolving-door" regulations, which are designed to prevent conflicts of interest. Under the rules, civil servants cannot take high-ranking positions with companies they had dealings with while in public office within three years of their resignation. Chen, who held the post under the previous DPP administration, said the committee advised Tsai Ing-wen that the move would not violate the regulations because the company was not directly under her supervision while she was in government. The issue was raised when a legislative committee invited Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina Liu last week to speak on the role of the NDF in the company last week. The committee later passed a resolution asking the Cabinet to declassify the secret files on the company's establishment. (By Sophia Yeh, Wen Kuei-hsiang and Deborah Kuo)