TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) produced receipts Friday to prove he paid NT$2.14 million (US$66,900) for a trip to attend a Taiwan baseball game in Japan out of his own pocket.

When he attended Taiwan’s 14-0 World Baseball Classic victory against the Czech Republic in Tokyo on March 7, he became the first serving Taiwan premier to visit Japan since the two countries ended official relations in 1972. However, he faced accusations about the spending of public money on a private trip.

At a news conference Friday morning, Cho showed the receipts for the baseball game, a bus, the chartered plane, and currency exchange documents to prove he had used his private funds to pay for the whole trip, the Liberty Times reported. The China Airlines chartered flights between Taipei Songshan Airport and Haneda cost NT$2.04 million, he said.

For the match ticket he wired NT$18,500 from the Cabinet post office to the account of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League. He added he paid 200,000 yen (NT$39,640) for the bus trip to the bus driver on March 7. Cho also showed his bank passbook indicating he had asked his secretary on March 5 to exchange NT$45,122 for 220,000 yen.

The premier said he hoped the documents would lead the opposition to stop its attacks. Encouraging the fans and Taiwan’s baseball team at the WBC had been worth the cost, Cho said.