Taiwan's Presidential Office on Wednesday rejected a claim by Kuomintang legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin that President 
Lai Ching-te decided the 20% threshold for pulling products off shelves in the Chung Lien oil carcinogen case. Invoking the Chinese idiom of besieging one state to relieve another, the Office said Hsu's aim was to "rescue Private Wan-an, who has fallen into danger."
What did Hsu allege? With the threshold already drawing controversy and the Chung Lien case still in the public eye, Hsu turned her fire on Lai in a Facebook post, saying that "the 20% removal threshold was decided by President Lai Ching-te," CNA reported. She also said Food and Drug Administration Director-General Chiang Chih-kang had been on good terms with people connected to the case, and raised questions about those dealings. Hsu said she had recently received information purportedly from inside the Ministry of Justice, describing senior ministry officials discussing the toxic-oil case with a veteran media figure, the Liberty Times reported. By her account, the same information held that the 20% standard had presumably been decided by Lai.
How did the government respond? Presidential Office spokesperson Kuo Ya-hui delivered the rebuttal on Threads on Wednesday evening, saying Hsu had been wildly making up stories, CNA reported. In a response the Liberty Times reported, the Ministry of Justice firmly rejected Hsu's insinuation that its senior officials had intervened in the carcinogen case.
What did other lawmakers say? Chuang Jui-hsiung, secretary-general of the Democratic Progressive Party caucus, said a disclosure may carry question marks but an accusation cannot come without evidence, the Liberty Times reported. Hsu hit back that there was plenty Chuang did not know.
Figures referenced: Lai Ching-te. — JudgeMarket.
