Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over its assets, saying the KMT administration had secretly sold its ill-gotten assets, pocketed substantial commissions from the transactions and used the profits to heavily subsidize the party’s election campaigns, spawning grave public grievance in the country.
Accompanied by lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and representatives from the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan, the Rotary Club and the Taiwan Junior Chamber, Su made the remarks at a press conference in Taipei, titled “Giving vent to fury” (火大找出路), which called on more than 1,000 civil groups to hit the streets along with the party in a planned mass demonstration in Taipei against President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
The rally, which is set to begin at 3pm on Jan. 13 at the intersection of Renai Road and Guangfu S Road, will be the last leg of the DPP’s one-month Fury (火大) campaign against what it says is the Ma administration’s poor governance.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“The KMT has not only liquidated its unjustly solicited assets in secrecy, but has also received huge commissions from the sales. While the party has yet to reduce its assets to zero [as promised by Ma in his capacity as KMT chairman,] it has been using the stolen assets to subsidize election campaigns,” Su said.
Su’s criticism of the KMT came after a recent court ruling involving Hsinyutai Co, a spin-off of the KMT’s investment company — Central Investment Holding Co — which sued the buyers of Central Motion Pictures Corp (CMPC) for NT$2.5 billion (US$85.9 million) for breach of contract.
According to the ruling, handed down on Nov. 30, the Central Investment Holding Co had stipulated in the sales contract of the CMPC with Lor Yu-chen (羅玉珍) and Chuang Wan-chun (莊婉均) that the latter helped the holding company auction off several of its assets with an estimated value of NT$9.8 billion and then paid it a sum of the profits after deducting taxes and transaction fees if they were sold higher than a certain price.
The pair were sued for failing to liquidate such properties within a stipulated period and thus incurring financial damage to the holding company.
Turning to the soaring prices caused by the Ma administration’s plan to increase fuel prices and electricity rates, Su said last year had been a year of suffering and worries under the Ma administration.
Su said public fear over the possible bankruptcy of the Labor Insurance Fund by 2024 had resulted in a spike in the number of insurers applying for lump-sum payments in October and November last year, totaling more than NT$80 billion.
However, the Ma administration still raised premium rates for the fund on Tuesday and let the second-generation National Health Insurance system take effect on the same day, Su said.
Echoing Su’s opinions, Medical Professional Alliance in Taichung secretary-general Gao Chia-chun (高嘉君) said the number of people seeking self-pay treatments was on the rise, mainly because they could no longer afford their health insurance premiums.
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