How long is the reach of corruption? - TW, CN, FR

[dArKeR]

Two months ago, one of our staff members sent a document to the Taiwan Representative Office (TRO) in the UK to be notarized for use here in Taiwan. The office managed to put the necessary chop on the document, but forgot the validating countersignature. When the document was returned it was useless, and the process had to be gone through all over again.

We retell this admittedly trifling anecdote only to point out that when it comes to doing the most basic task properly, the TRO in London leaves a lot to be desired. The many procedural lapses involved in the issuing of a passport to the wife of fugitive arms dealer Andrew Wang (???) might therefore be simple incompetence.

But it seems a remarkable coincidence that whenever Wang or one of his family members seems to need the aid of Taiwan's authorities abroad, they receive it, including a power of attorney certified in Geneva in 2001 and another certified in London last year. Are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its employees overseas really this incompetent, or is there a darker motive behind MOFA's acting as Wang's fairy godmother? Is this facilitation of Wang's evasion of justice deliberate? And to what extent is it seen as expedient?

Let us remember that, though it is in connection with Yin Ching-feng's (???) murder that Wang is being sought, the background to this whole affair is the Lafayette frigate deal. And if we are to believe former French foreign minister Roland Dumas, that deal involved US$400 million in kickbacks being filtered via the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to pockets in Taiwan (as well as US$100 million that lined pockets in Beijing).

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/08/16/2003198996