Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government of seeking to launch a politically motivated witch hunt under the banner of “transitional justice.”
Hung said only the KMT has managed to achieve actual transitional justice.
“The KMT has cultivated Taiwan for more than 60 years, making the nation one of the four Asian tiger economies and also, through former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) lifting of bans on newspapers and political parties, transformed the Republic of China [ROC] from authoritarianism to democracy,” Hung said.
Photo: Wang Shan-yan, Taipei Times
“This is what we call genuine transitional justice,” Hung said, adding that the DPP administration’s oft-trumpeted efforts to push for transitional justice are nothing but a sugarcoated political witch hunt.
Hung made the remarks on the sidelines of an event held by the party’s Chiayi County chapter yesterday morning to celebrate the 122th anniversary of the founding of the KMT’s predecessor the Revive China Society.
The event came two days after the Executive Yuan’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee ordered the KMT to transfer to the government all its rights to shares issued by Central Investment Co (中央投資公司) and Hsinyutai Co (欣裕台), after concluding that the two companies were founded using illegally obtained assets.
Hung said since the KMT failed to do a good job in some aspects and given the public’s yearning for a new government that could bring hope and new prospects, it was natural for the party to be voted out of office under a democratic system.
“But what has the DPP government done since taking office? The first thing it did was launch a witch hunt against the KMT in the hopes of eliminating the party and realizing its goal of political hegemony,” Hung said.
At a separate celebratory event in Chiayi, Hung said that the KMT has already dealt with its problematic properties after former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the DPP conducted a sweeping investigation into the party’s assets during his eight-year presidency.
“The DPP has forced the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) through the legislature, but has denied the KMT the right to file a list of its assets within a year in accordance with the act,” Hung said.
“Only bandits would unilaterally seize all of someone’s assets,” Hung added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty