TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei Kuomintang (KMT) councilor Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) has accused a former advisor to Taiwan's Navy Kuo Hsi (郭璽) of seeking to profit from the country's Indigenous Defense Submarine (IDS) program.
Hsu made the comments at a press conference titled “Smell the Money, Indigenous Submarine Program. Is this you, Kuo Hsi? EP. 1” on Tuesday (Oct. 3), per Yahoo.
She told reporters Kuo had intended to start a company with South Korean partners to win contracts for construction of the remaining seven submarines in Taiwan’s IDS program. She added the deal had fallen through.
“Smell the money” (qian jian, 錢見) is a play on words in Mandarin. The phrase has a similar pronunciation to the word for submarine.
She presented the meeting with an audio recording of a man who identified himself as Kuo verbally abusing a South Korean consultant named Little Chiang (小強). Hsu said the audio recording had been third-party authenticated and had not been edited or altered.
Hsu said in the recording Kuo referenced a betrayal involving an individual surnamed Park. The man assumed to be Kuo can be heard asking Little Chiang, “If you can betray Park, who won’t you betray?"
He asks Chiang, “Can you honestly say you are not betraying Park?” He adds, “Korean professionals should not behave this way.”
Kuo also tells Chiang, “We will not let the contract terminate," and, "We will find other money." Hsu alleged that by finding other money, Kuo meant he would secure funds from Taiwan’s government for his company.
Hsu said the recording raised questions about whether Kuo had a say over allocation of the national budget. She suggested the group of individuals might be using issues like countering China and the IDS program to seek personal gain.
Hsu said Kuo intended to start and head a company with three Koreans to win contracts for the rest of the IDS program’s submarines. She questioned whether it was right for a former naval adviser to profit in this way from Taiwan’s defense budget.
She suggested it was an example of unfair market competition. She added she found it absurd.
Hsu said the man in the recording who identifies himself as Kuo threatened Chiang’s employment at Taiwan Shipbuilding because their business fell through. Kuo says to Little Chiang, “There is no way you can continue to work for CSBC Corporation”.
CSBC is a company that makes civilian and military ships in Taiwan. It was state-owned before privatizing in 2008.
Kuo adds, "Who would dare to employ you? ... I would need to write just three news articles, and you are done.”
Hsu criticized Kuo for interfering in the business of Taiwan Shipbuilding. She said Kuo implied he could manipulate the media to benefit himself.
She told reporters she had more recordings. She added the reasons behind the deterioration of relations between the two parties in the recording would be disclosed at a later date.
She questioned why Kuo wanted to recruit South Koreans for his company. She also questioned whether any national secrets, such as budget or progress information, had been leaked in the process.
