Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said he has ordered all Taipei City Government departments to draft a complete list of all municipal property, after discovering that the controversial bus lane on Zhongxiao W Road includes a bus stop that is not listed as belonging to the city.
The move followed a statement by city government spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) that said former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) administration had failed to turn over a detailed inventory of city property when it handed over power to Ko’s administration.
“Because a substantial portion of the inventory was done carelessly, it is necessary to review all property records,” Ko said. “While roadside structures are difficult to inventory and it is unclear how they should be registered, they are still municipal property.”
Lee Kun-chen (李昆振), a section chief at the Taipei Transportation Department’s planning division, said that the city’s bus stops are normally not registered as belonging to the local government, but that the department is now reconsidering this.
Ko also criticized Hau’s management of city-directed construction projects, including the 2017 Universiade athletes’ village in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口) and a planned underground tunnel linking the Taipei Dome and the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
Meanwhile, Ko criticized the National Taxation Bureau of the Northern Area, amid reports that it summoned his parents to provide documentation showing that NT$10 million (US$313,000) they gave him to buy a new house had been a personal “loan” and not a “gift,” which would make it liable for taxation.
The move sparked speculation that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is targeting the independent mayor.
“The election is over,” Ko said. “This way of doing things goes beyond the scope of what ordinary citizens will stand for.”
He asked rhetorically if the government had nothing better to do, asking why officials had suddenly become so “industrious.”
Ko refused to comment further on the bureau’s actions, instead calling repeatedly for a “high-enough ranking” bureau official to give a public explanation before he says anything more on the issue.
“No one makes their children write out a receipt when lending them money,” Ko’s mother, Ho Jui-ying (何瑞英), said separately yesterday.
In a statement, the bureau said it was simply carrying out its duty to investigate all reports of tax fraud.
Bureau Director-General Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) was quoted by media as saying that the bureau had intentionally waited until last year’s Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections were over before pursuing the case against Ko’s parents.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
RSS