The Executive Yuan yesterday completed the review of the draft bill of the Political Party Law (政黨法), which would ban political parties from operating or investing in a profit-making enterprise, including television and radio stations.
Parties that already operate or have invested in a profit-making enterprise would be required to sell the property or put it into trust within two years of the law taking effect.
But in order to spread their views, parties would be allowed to operate or invest in newspapers, magazines, books or publications, including online media.
The draft will go to tomorrow's weekly Cabinet affairs meeting for approval before proceeding to the legislature for further review and final approval.
The draft bill, which is considered one of the "sunshine laws," is listed as one of the priority bills that the Cabinet hopes to pass during the next legislative session, which convenes on Sept. 24.
The four "sunshine laws" include the political party law (政黨法), the lobby law (遊說法), the political donation law (政治獻金法) and the already-passed Trust Enterprise Law (信託業法).
The Legislative Yuan passed the Trust Enterprise Law (信託業法) on June 30, 2000, helping KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to carry out his pledge in the run-up to the presidential election to put the party's assets into a trust.
The other three pieces of legislation, however, have yet passed into law.
Addressing the press conference after last night's closed-door meeting, Minister without Portfolio Yeh Jiunn-rong (
"We'd like to create a fair, competitive environment that makes sense for all political parties," he said. "We'd also like to set down guidelines for what a political party can and cannot do."
In addition, the government would like to see the financial records of political parties to be open and transparent and to see parties establish democratic mechanisms within themselves, Yeh said.
To create a fair and reasonable competitive environment, all parties would be entitled to fairly use public venues and the mass media.
A party that violates the ban on investing and operating a profit-making enterprise would face a fine of between NT$5 million and NT$25 million.
In addition, parties would be banned from establishing local chapters on campuses, in the military, in judicial institutions and in government organizations.
To make a party's financial records open and transparent, the financial sources of a party would be limited to membership fees, campaign donations, campaign subsidies or bank interest.
Parties would also be required to keep copies of receipts for at least five years and account books for at least 10 years. Their annual financial report would have to be ratified by a certified accountant and made public either through a government bulletin, newspaper or online.
A political party would also be prohibited from possessing any real estate except for that used for office buildings.
Parties which already own real estate other than office buildings would be required to sell the property.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS