The KMT's Diane Lee Back in Court: I Ripped You Off, but I Am Not Corrupt.

Friday September 18, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

You can tell the loyalty of the beggar's children (乞丐趕廟公) to Taiwan by the way they are always ready to jump ship if the going gets tough. For that reason, Diane Lee of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has held dual citizenship with the USA from 1994 (when democracy began to take hold) to the present. During that time she has illegally collected over US$3 million in salaries and has also made laws for a country that she is prepared to abandon at a moment's notice.

Since it is illegal for City Councilors and National Legislators to hold dual citizenship, Ms. Lee knowingly left blank that place in the form that asks that specific question. To do it once could be claimed to be an oversight; to do it repeatedly and consistently for four times is premeditated deception.

Through her lawyers, Ms. Lee is effectively saying to Taiwan, "I deceived you, I cheated you, I ripped you off for US$3 million, but I am not corrupt." The lawyers got the indictment to be on charges of fraud and forgery and not corruption, for if it is corruption she would immediately have to give the money back. If fraud the country would have to go through another court case to get it back. Taiwan's judiciary system whose partiality is already in deep question since the improprieties of the Chen Shui-bian case, bowed to Ms. Lee's lawyers.

Other questions arise. Does she also have a passport to the People's Republic of China (PRC)? Let's let the PRC ponder that one. What about making laws for a country one is prepared to abandon? That borders on treason in my books. Isn't the penalty for treason death? Finally there is the questionable double standard of the judiciary for blue and green defendants. Well let's watch to see how this trial goes.