Despite the assertion by Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), when he was acting chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), that all of the party’s assets were acquired through legitimate means, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday asked for an investigation of the issue, which is to be conducted by “impartial” public figures.
At the first meeting of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee since his inauguration as chairman on Monday, Chu, who is also mayor of New Taipei City, said he has commissioned Jennifer Wang (王如玄), a lawyer and a former Council of Labor Affairs minister, and KMT Legislator Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井) to form a team of party members known for their impartiality and professionalism to look into the assets issue.
The team is to go through documents related to the party’s assets and its financial status and produce a report, an idea that had been suggested to Chu throughout his campaign for chairman, he said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Chu has promised that any of the KMT’s assets — which critics call “ill-gotten” because they were allegedly taken by the party from the Japanese colonial government, private businesses and individuals when the KMT took control of Taiwan after World War II — found to be illegally acquired by the party will be returned to the nation.
Chu’s pledge came despite Wu telling a committee meeting at the end of last month that there were no assets obtained through improper means following a briefing by then-KMT Administration Committee head Lin Te-jui (林德瑞).
Aside from the party’s assets, Chu asked KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) to revamp the National Policy Foundation, the party’s think tank, to “function as it is supposed to” and KMT Vice Chairperson Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) to lead a team to discuss how to reshape the party.
Chu said he is aiming to turn the KMT into a highly effective self-made party dedicated to volunteerism.
At the meeting, committee member Lin Rong-te (林榮德), with more than 20 cosigners, proposed that the party withdraw its appeal of the ruling in favor of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) retaining his party membership.
The KMT, then led by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), revoked Wang’s membership amid allegations that he had used his influence to try and affect the outcome of a legal case in 2013.
The Special Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office accused Wang of meddling in a breach of trust lawsuit on behalf of Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) by urging two high-ranking judicial officials to influence a prosecutor into refraining from appealing Ker’s not-guilty verdict.
Chu decided to postpone a decision on Lin’s proposal until new chairperson of the Central Evaluation and Discipline Committee, KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), presents a plan to the committee next week to reform the evaluation and discipline system.
Throughout Chu’s campaign, he hinted at the possibility that the party would rescind its decision to revoke Wang’s membership in an effort to boost morale.
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