The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) has denied any U.S. involvement or concern over the investigation into former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je\u2019s bribery allegations. The Taiwan People\u2019s Party (TPP) founder has been under detention since 5 September amid claims that he accepted bribes from a developer to significantly expand the floor area ratio of the Core Pacific City project. Ko has strongly denied the accusations, while other figures, including a city councillor and former city officials, have also been detained.<\/p>\n
The speculation around U.S. involvement arose after Dale Jieh, a former Taiwanese envoy to New Zealand, suggested during a televised talk show that AIT would step in if the investigation continued. His remarks were later echoed by Hsiao Hsu-tsen, director of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation.<\/p>\n
In response, AIT issued a statement clarifying its position, reiterating that it respects Taiwan\u2019s democratic system and commitment to the rule of law. A spokesperson stressed that the United States does not interfere in Taiwan\u2019s judicial matters, aiming to distance Washington from any claims of involvement in local legal proceedings.<\/p>\n
A foreign policy expert, who wished to remain anonymous, commented that no democratic nation would be concerned with Ko\u2019s case, attributing the rumours to possible efforts by China to undermine trust in Taiwan\u2019s judiciary and its relations with the United States. The expert suggested the allegations might be an attempt to stoke public distrust, portraying them as part of a broader effort to challenge Taiwan\u2019s independence and its alignment with the West.<\/p>\n
As the investigation continues, Taiwan\u2019s judicial process remains under scrutiny, with several political commentators weighing in on the case\u2019s potential implications for the country\u2019s political landscape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The speculation around U.S. involvement arose after Dale Jieh, a former Taiwanese envoy to New Zealand, suggested during a televised talk show that AIT would step in if the investigation continued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":37144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[21638,21637,21639,4618,261,21586,4352,5966,1011],"class_list":["post-37141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-taiwan","tag-ait","tag-american-institute-in-taiwan-ait","tag-dale-jieh","tag-ko-wen-je","tag-taiwan","tag-taiwan-peoples-party-tpp","tag-taiwanese","tag-tpp","tag-u-s"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37145,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37141\/revisions\/37145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}