Tsai Pi-chung, the New Dongchang, Please Step Down!

 Tsai Pi-chung, the New Dongchang, Please Step Down!

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 10, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Deputy Justice Minister Tsai Pi-chung publicly argued for the legality concerning DPP legislator Chen Ming-wen’s NT$3 million in cash case; it not only considered the functions of a deputy justice minister as those of Chen Ming-wen’s defense counsel, but also had suspicions of setting up a framework for case prosecutors in investigating the NT$3 million in cash case. Deputy Minister Tsai exceeded the demarcation of functions that he should maintain, causing misgivings of making the Justice Ministry as another Dongchang (Dongchang was a Ming Dynasty secret police organization equivalent to the Gestapo.); thus, he is not fit to be Deputy Justice Minister and should take the initiative to tender his resignation and step down.

Last year, the “Dongchang” incident exploded at the Transformational Justice Commission (TJC) under the Cabinet, which is still fresh in social memory. At the time, Chang Tien-chin, then TJC deputy chairman, self-styled “Dangchang”, before the elections of county executives and city mayors, was anxious to help the DPP to lift its electoral prospects, saying in an internal meeting that "We were originally Nanchang (south), now we have become Xichang (west), and then were elevated to become Dongchang (east). Now, Tsai Pi-chung, in the run-up to the 2020 presidential and legislative elections, was worried that DPP legislator Chen Ming-wen got mired in the NT$3 million cash tempest, abruptly jumped out to extricate Chen Ming-wen; this gave people the bad impression of another kind of "Dongchang" redux.

Tsai Pi-chung was Chen Ming-wen's defense counsel in a criminal case many years ago; this is known to all. The two are extremely good friends, and this is no secret in political circles. At the present, Tsai Pi-chung publicly jumped out to explain Chen Ming-wen's NT$3 million in cash case, naturally having a separate level of meaning, which is publicly expressing to the procuratorial system that he and Chen Ming-wen are good brothers.

As Chen Ming-wen is one of President Tsai Ing-wen’s top lieutenants and also the DPP’s important brain trust in the 2020 presidential and legislative elections, thus, as long as Tsai Pi-chung stays on in his Justice Ministry position for one more day, it means Tsai Pi-chung’s hand can extend into the prosecutorial system to intervene in investigations one more day. The political tempest over Chen Ming-wen’s NT$3 million in cash case will snowball.

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