Two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators sued former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
DPP legislators Yu Jan-daw (
Yu and Kao said Ma had agreed to the city's Education Department 1999 project to allow the children's home to occupy its current location on Yangmingshan rent free.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
But the home has rented the majority of the government-donated land to its private school, which charges about NT$80,000 per semester, Yu said.
The Hua Hsing Children's Home was founded by Soong Mayling (宋美齡), wife of the former dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), in 1955 to house orphans. The children's home later established the elementary and junior high school. Those schools were opened to the public in 2002 and began working under independent administrative systems from the children's home three years later.
Citing the Civil Code, Yu said the Taipei City Government had the right to terminate its contract with the children's home because the home did not get the city's consent before renting the land to the private school.
The city government, however, failed to do so, Yu said.
"Ma knew perfectly well that the Hua Hsing Children's Home had disguised itself as a charity facility to obtain the land on Yangmingshan, and then it rented the land to the private Huang Hsing Elementary and Junior High School for huge profits," Yu said.
"He had the clear intention to profit the children's home and the private school," Yu said.
The Central News Agency quoted Ma yesterday as saying that several Taipei mayors had been involved in the decision-making.
"If there's any legal problem, Chen Shui-bian (
Chen served as mayor of Taipei from 1994 to 1998.
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
RSS