The first reading of four bills aimed at dealing with the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) ill-gotten party assets passed yesterday, with the party asking for a joint committee deliberation of the bills.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus motioned for a change of the legislative agenda, moving up the four bills concerning the party assets that was blocked by the KMT on Friday last week to the top of the agenda. It passed on the first reading.
The KMT caucus did not obstruct proceedings, but asked for a review of the bills by a joint committee that would consist of the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, the Internal Administration Committee and the Finance Committee.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
It is likely that the review would take place shortly, while the DPP caucus yesterday held a news conference calling on the KMT not to rush the sale of its party assets prior to the legislation.
The DPP caucus said that the combined value of seven Taipei properties put up for auction comes to NT$9.84 billion (US$294 million), which includes the New CB Party KTV building in Ximen District (NT$3.74 billion), the Taipei Tower C1 land lot (NT$2.5 billion) and a construction on Changchun Road (NT$2.21 billion).
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said the KMT has placed advertisements in newspapers looking for buyers for its party assets.
DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) said the KMT is trying to get these buildings sold before the presidential transition and warned the party against selling the assets before a bill governing them is passed.
DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) also advised potential buyers against purchasing “controversial party assets,” which could result in getting nothing in exchange of their money.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said the DPP was “manipulating a pseudo-issue” by accusing the KMT of rushing the sale of questionable assets.
“The DPP government, during its eight-year rule, made a list and cleared all of the KMT’s disputed party assets. A total of 267 plots and buildings, amounting to NT$4.8 billion, had been either forfeited and reregistered as owned by the Republic of China or returned to local governments as gifts,” Lin said in a statement, adding that 51 of them were picked out as controversial by the KMT.
“Regarding the legal assets, the first priority is to use them to pay off the debt of Central Investment Co; giving them away to the central and the local governments or lending them to nonprofit organizations are also the available options,” Lin said, adding that the KMT has recently donated seven housing properties to local governments.
The assets owned by the party are all legal assets and have all been entrusted to the party, Lin said, questioning DPP president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) sincerity about her talk of conciliation while turning a blind eye to her party lawmakers’ “raid-like attacks on other political parties.”
Meanwhile, former KMT spokesperson Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) called on the KMT to donate its assets as compensation to the victims of the KMT’s authoritarian rule and for recording the history of human rights violations during the White Terror era.
“The KMT could continue what it is going through now, which is procrastinating and resisting [the relinquishing of the assets] and polarizing the society and distorting ‘transitional justice’ into ‘transitional hatred,’” Yang said. “This approach is an easy way, but it would lead to the KMT’s total ruin.”
“Or the KMT could choose ‘short-term pain’ by clearing it off its historical burden and being reborn as a new KMT,” Yang said.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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