The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday published a booklet detailing how Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and his father, Lien Chen-tung (連震東), a high-ranking official of the former KMT administration, had abused their power to accumulate family wealth.
The booklet, 500,000 copies of which will be distributed around the country during the next 10 days, details the dubious process by which Lien and his father acquired various tracts of land, which are now used for commercial purposes.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The booklet starts with Lien Chen-tung's rise from a poor civil servant to the seventh wealthiest man in Taipei within 11 years of the KMT's settlement in Taiwan in 1949.
The Lien family has said many times that the family had no property. Lien once wrote in a Hong Kong newspaper that "the Lien family has long lived in Tainan City and all the family assets were confiscated after the Japanese occupied Taiwan" in 1895.
Using land purchase certificates as evidence, the booklet says that the first piece of land Lien Chen-tung bought in 1949 is now the site of the second hall of the Idee Department Store on Taipei's Nanjing West Road.
The documents show that Lien Chen-tung bought the land in 1949, a year before official records show that the KMT government nationalized the property in 1950. Another document shows that the land was transferred to Lien in 1951.
"This piece of land should have belonged to the government. But actually Lien bought it before the government nationalized the land," DPP campaign headquarters spokesperson Wu Nai-jen (
Wu said the land was involved in a series of scandals as it was once used for a karaoke bar, which burned down in 1995 because of lax fire-prevention facilities, and then a video game parlor, which was closed in 1996 following a crackdown instigated by former Chen Shui-bian (
In addition to the unjust way in which it obtained the government-owned property, the Lien family also illegally bought farming land and put it to commercial uses.
Wu yesterday said Lien Chan bought land as a farmer in Taipei City's Shihlin District in 1959 when he studied in the US. The land was made available for commercial uses a year later.
In 1961, Lien Chen-tung used the same method to buy another piece of land in the same area and completed the land recategorization five years later.
Lien's eldest daughter, Lien Hui-hsin (
Wu yesterday said although the Agricultural Development Act (ADA,
Wu yesterday dismissed KMT Secretary General Lin Feng-cheng's (林豐正) defense that the ADA was not applicable and therefore the Lien family was not breaking the law in conducting such deals.
"Lin's defense was utter lies. The law said clearly that even before 1973, only those who are able to cultivate the land are eligible for owning farming land," Wu said.
Not to be outdone, the KMT is running TV commercials targeting Chen Shui-bian's family wealth.
Also see story:
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS