The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday urged New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) to declare his stance on the long-stalled draft regulations regarding the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) stolen assets, saying it is the only way he can prove that he would not follow in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) footsteps if elected chairman.
Chu is the sole candidate for the KMT chairmanship after Ma resigned from the post earlier this month to take responsibility for the party’s losses in the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 29.
DPP spokesperson Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) made the remarks in response to Chu’s pledge on Friday last week that he would return the KMT’s improperly obtained assets to the nation if elected.
“Given that KMT lawmakers have boycotted the draft political party act [政黨法] and the statute regarding the disposition of assets improperly obtained by political parties [政黨不當取得財產處理條例] more than 200 times, Chu must make his stance on the drafts known to the public and explicitly prohibit KMT legislators from blocking such proposals in the future,” Huang said.
Huang said that such a move would be the only way Chu could show the public that he would not be “another Ma.”
“During his term as KMT deputy chairman, Chu did nothing when Ma broke his promise of ‘zero party assets.’ He made the pledge to return the party’s improperly gained assets to the nation only after announcing his bid for the KMT chairmanship,” Huang said.
“We must systematically scrutinize Chu’s promise to see whether his words are an empty slogan,” Huang added.
The spokesman said the KMT is the wealthiest political party in the world and the majority of its wealth came from public’s hard-earned money, urging Chu to compile a list of assets that the party obtained unjustly.
Citing a Supreme Court ruling in August, Huang said the verdict revoked the Broadcasting Corp of China’s (BCC) ownership of eight lots in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) — which total more than 5,000 ping (16,500m2) and are valued at NT$10 billion (US$319 million) — and declared that they should be state property.
According to the decision, the eight lots of land were subdivided from three plots of state-owned real estate that the then-KMT government took over from the Japanese colonial government following World War II.
A civil lawsuit was filed in 2004 by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications against the BCC’s claims to ownership of the land, which the ministry said was stolen from the state.
The plots were listed as national property and entrusted to the ministry and the then-KMT’s Central Committee Radio Broadcasting Station, the BCC’s predecessor.
Huang said that since Chu supports the return of the KMT’s illicit assets to the nation, the draft political party act must be passed to help the party verify which of its assets were legally obtained.
“As such verification efforts might also require the cooperation of the Ma administration, we urge the president to also declare his stance on the passage of the draft and on Chu’s party asset reform plan,” Huang said.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
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
RSS