The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday criticized Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for causing his party "to degenerate" and the city's development "to regress" in the year since he assumed the chairmanship.
Speaking ahead of the first anniversary of Ma's inauguration, DPP Spokesman Tsai Huang-liang (
Tsai said that several KMT politicians whose campaigns Ma supported, including Hsinchu Commissioner Cheng Yung-chin (鄭永金) and Keelung Mayor Hsu Tsai-li (許財利), had been charged with corruption since assuming office.
These cases proved that "the corrupt system of the KMT has remained unchanged," he said.
Tsai said that while Ma had repeatedly promised to deal with the party's "ill-gotten" assets, the KMT had sold NT$23 billion (US$703.36 million) worth of its assets under Ma's leadership.
He said the DPP had begun a signature drive for a proposal to hold a public referendum to reclaim the KMT's "ill-gotten" assets and that it would submit more than 80,000 signatures to the Central Election Commission for review by next Wednesday.
He said that after the commission finished the review process, the DPP would initiate a second-stage signature drive with the goal of collecting 800,000 signatures by the end of the year.
The DPP hoped that the referendum will be held next year, he added.
In response, Ma yesterday said that after the KMT Central Standing Committee's meeting on Aug. 23, he would explain how the party had handled the assets, including investment profits and losses.
also see story:
Editorial: Chairman Ma, return the assets
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we