Chen asserted he was "bearing a cross for Taiwan," that he was "the KMT and the Communists 'number-one war criminal," and that his secret overseas accounts were a "nation-building fund for an independent Taiwan." He even urged the Taiwanese people to "storm the Bastille."
陳水扁收押前，曾多次聲稱自己是在「為台灣背十字架」、是「國共兩黨的頭號戰犯」，他的海外密帳資金是「台獨建國基金」，並鼓動台灣人民「攻陷巴士底獄」。