Diplomatic slush

摘要

AT THE end of June a bombshell burst over Taiwan's former leader, Lee Tenghui. The island's first democratically elected president, who ruled in between 1988 and 2000, was indicted for embezzlement and money-laundering. The country's top prosecutor's office charges Mr Lee, who is 88, with siphoning $7.8m from secret diplomatic funds over a decade ago and laundering them to build a research institute where he now presides as honorary chairman. Mr Lee, who has now become the second Taiwanese president to be charged with corruption, may face at least ten years in prison. He insists he is innocent.