A Taipei City councilor has accused one of Taiwan's most prominent former police chiefs of living beyond his means and has demanded an explanation.
New Party Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元) said that Ding Yuan-chin (丁原進) -- former head of the National Police Administration and previous chief of the Taipei City Police Headquarters -- purchased an upscale villa in Taipei's Wenshan District at a price much lower than its market value at the time.
The city councilor alleged that the preferential treatment given to Ding shaved NT$16.1 million off the price of the house.
Lee also claimed that Ding has refused to pay an interior decorator NT$4.7 million in redecoration expenses -- a sum which is now seven months overdue.
While Ding was unavailable to comment, his son, Ding Chao-chi (
Lee, who made the allegation at the city council yesterday morning, said that his own investigation showed that in 1999 Ding paid only half of the market price to buy the 14th and 15th floor of the 16-story Universal Villa (
"While the unit price of the villa cost about NT$350,000 per ping at that time, Ding spent only NT$200,000 per ping. In other words, it cost Ding only NT$21.4 million for the 107-ping, two-story house," Lee said.
If the price had not been lowered it should have cost Ding NT$37.5. million, Lee said, adding that it seemed suspicious for a civil servant, earning a modest salary, to buy a house with NT$21.4 million in cash.
"I call on Ding to offer us an explanation about his source of funding. Did he or did he not accept any preferential treatment from [construction tycoon] Ong Da-ming (
Ong is the CEO of the Hualon Corp (
Ding's son denied that the apartment had been purchased at a lower price because of his father's connections with Ong.
"I don't see the necessity of offering an explanation to the public about how we managed to purchase the house," he said.
Lee said he brought up the issue of unpaid design expenses at the request of Ding's interior designer, Ko Wen-cheng (
Producing detailed documentation of the project yesterday, Ko said that Ding has paid only about NT$3 million out of the total bill of NT$8 million, which was due at the end of last year.
Ding Chao-chi, however, said that the original quote they agreed upon was NT$4.5 million, but that the bill was later inflated to NT$7.8 million.
"We've already paid NT$3 million, but he's been asking us to pay NT$4 million more while the project is not even complete," he said.
According to Ko, the marble floor laid in the living room, kitchen, and restrooms was the most expensive item, accounting for NT$4.3 million. Two imported jacuzzies also carried a price tag of NT$175,000 apiece.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS