Hsieh an informant? Candidates' citizenship status to be checked

Next magazine, a racy publication in Taiwan with a Hong Kong owner, published in its most recent issue allegations that DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh was a secret informant for the KMT government, reporting on the activities of his fellow Tangwai (黨外) activists.

The allegations are decidedly implausable. In rebuttal, Hsieh also brought up that there were ten people operating a conspiracy theory to discredit his campaign.

Producing copies of newspaper clips reporting on his fights with the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau during the Martial Law era, Hsieh denied informing on democracy activists.

Hsieh said it was his understanding there were 10 people helping Ma with the smear campaign. These people have wanted to "decide the fate of the country" and have played various roles over the years, he said. Some of them were retired intelligence officials and knew a lot of inside information, Hsieh said. Their supervisors did not dare expose them because they knew their supervisors' weaknesses, he said.

Hsieh said he had been asked by the bureau to serve as an unpaid consultant for an advisory commission on an anti-graft crackdown. That consulting job was not a secret and newspapers had reported it, he said.

The 12 commission members included former Judicial Yuan vice president Cheng Chung-mo (城仲模), former grand justice Yang Chien-Hua (楊建華) and prominent legal experts such as Huan Tong-shong (黃東熊) and Tsai Tun-ming (蔡墩銘), he said.

Hsieh said he had joined the commission to push for "sunshine laws" and "legalize" the bureau.

He said he had been under constant surveillance both before and after the DPP was founded....

KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) -- who alleged on Wednesday that Hsieh had secretly informed on fellow democracy activists during the 1980s ... said Hsieh had also been evasive when responding to questions on whether he had received a great deal of money from the bureau for "betraying" democracy activists.

OK, I just don't buy it. Doesn't make sense at all.
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On an unrelated note, the CEC has said it will check into the citizenship/nationality of both presidential candidates, and will ask them to sign a release form allowing them to make a check with the Americans about Ma and Hsieh's status. A citizenship would disqualify a candidate from running; a valid green card would not. Both camps have signaled a willingness to comply.