A plan by a Chinese philanthropist to hand out hundreds of millions of NT dollars to some of Taiwan’s poorest families ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday has drawn a mixed response from municipal authorities and a good deal of criticism.
Several small counties have embraced the idea with open arms.
However, the conditions that Chen Guangbiao (陳光標), a tycoon who made his fortune by recycling construction materials, has set for giving the money — which include handing the cash over personally and doing so under his name — appear to have failed to convince other municipalities.
Photo: CNA
“We don’t want to see [the recipients] rounded up and have the [donations] take place in a high-profile manner,” New Taipei City (新北市) Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) said. “We still need to have some respect for the people that need our help.”
New Taipei City and Taoyuan County are two municipalities that have made it clear that Chen’s money would not be accepted. Other cities, including Taipei and Greater Kaohsiung, said they have not yet been approached by Chen to take part of the “Gratitude Trip” he plans to stage.
The Chinese-language United Daily News reported yesterday that Chen plans to bring a group of 50 Chinese industrialists to Taiwan on Thursday and has pledged to give up to NT$500 million (US$17.2 million) during a tour of the country, which will begin over the weekend.
Chen has prepared about 50,000 red envelopes embossed with the inscription “The day is cold, the ground freezing but the peoples’ hearts are warm. The Chinese race is one family and a fire in the winter,” the newspaper reported.
Chen was quoted as saying that the large donation this year was in response to an outpouring of popular support from Taiwanese for Chinese earthquake victims in the past. Taiwan donated more than NT$2 billion to victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
However, Chen’s plans, which reportedly include a huge dinner party for 600 disadvantaged people at the Grand Hotel on Saturday, where he plans to hand out some of the red envelopes, have be criticized as being “over the top” by some municipal officials.
Greater Kaohsiung officials said anyone making donations needed to consider the self-respect and equality of recipients, which was why the city insisted that donations to low-income families take place through a municipal fund.
Taoyuan County Government officials said that while donations were rarely turned down, they were put in a bind when Chen rejected using a representative and insisted on distributing his red envelopes in front of the county government offices.
However, Hsinchu and Nantou county officials said they were more than happy to comply with some of Chen’s reported requests.
Both counties have reportedly already chosen their list of 300 recipients, officials said. Nantou County is also planning to send buses to take recipients to and from the county government offices.
“We hope to hold a caring ceremony, we won’t let the people feel like they’re accepting handouts,” Hsinchu County Social Affairs Department director Tsai Kuang-jung (蔡光榮) said.
Chen was ranked No. 223 on Forbes’ list of richest Chinese. His net worth is reportedly 2.8 billion yuan (US$425.4 million).
Chen has promised to leave his entire fortune to charity after his death, the first Chinese billionaire to do so. He was quoted as telling the Sunday Telegraph in October last year that he wanted to create a “charity army” of rich Chinese, who would donate at least 20 percent of their annual profit to good causes.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP AND STAFF REPORTER
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS