Committee of Illegal Party Asset Settlement Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) yesterday announced his picks for committee members, while confirming the appointment of Agency Against Corruption Deputy Director-General Hung Pai-ken (洪培根) as deputy chairman.
Koo said he knows that the Ministry of Justice’s Prosecutors’ Personnel Review Committee opposed the appointment of Hung — who is to quit his post to join the committee when it becomes active next month — but Koo asked that prosecutors show “forbearance and understanding.”
The post of assets committee secretary-general is to be filled by Chang Hung-tse (張弘澤), counselor of review and evaluations with the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, Koo said.
Koo said he has appointed Lo Cheng-chung (羅承宗), associate professor of financial and economic law at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳), former commissioner of the Pingtung County Government Tax Bureau, as full-time committee members, while a third full-time member would be appointed later.
The committee’s eight part-time members are former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesperson Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中); former Social Democratic Party legislative candidate Lee Yen-jong (李晏榕); Judicial Reform Foundation secretary-general Lin Che-wei (林哲瑋); National Chengchi University professor of history Li Fu-chung (李福鐘); accountant Jao Yueh-chin (饒月琴); and lawyers Wu Yu-hsueh (吳雨學), Yuan Hsiu-hui (袁秀慧) and Chang Shih-hsing (張世興), Koo said.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) gave him “a lot of latitude and trust” in the appointments, Koo said, quoting the premier as saying: “I have no objections whatsoever.”
“Achieving a balance between the political parties was difficult, because committee members cannot hold positions in a party or be an elected representative, while pan-blue camp politicians I spoke to said the requirements put them in a difficult position,” Koo said. “In the end, the appointments were based on professional credentials and competence.”
Koo said Lin Che-wei was selected because he was involved in government transparency groups, such as Watchout Co and online community G0V.tw, and is to assist in making committee operations more transparent and use information technology to better communicate with the public.
KMT Deputy Secretary-General Lin Te-fu (林德福) said he had “no comment” on the appointments.
He said that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers practiced “majority violence,” using floor votes to quash dissent.
He called the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) “illegal and unconstitutional.”
KMT Legislator Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) said Koo is a “deep-green person” and the party asset settlement process will “predictably develop a complete pro-green bias.”
The appointees are “controversial people” who will make reconciliation between parties “utterly impossible,” Sufin said.
“Taiwanese society will become more fragmented and partisan because the committee is a source of chaos,” Sufin said.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said the KMT should “face the facts and deal with [its assets] as soon as possible, instead of continuing with its futile resistance.”
“If the KMT position is that the law is illegal or unconstitutional, it should specify what clauses are a breach of the law or the Constitution,” Lee Chun-yi said.
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify
BOLSTERING DEFENSE: The explosive is 40 percent more powerful than those in use and could be deployed for Hsiung Feng II and III missiles, a government source said The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has developed a polycyclic nitroamine explosive, commonly known as CL-20, which is the most powerful non-nuclear explosive known, a government source said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The institute has significantly improved explosive and rocket propellant research and development in recent years, the source said. A new factory was established in June 2022 with NT$540 million (US$16.6 million) in equipment installed, the source said. A central complex that would house 50-gallon (189 liters) and 300-gallon (1,136 liters) explosive mixer machines, as well as a storage device, was constructed in the factory, the institute said. The explosive is