The National Women’s League donated NT$617 million (US$21.07 million) to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its foundations over the past decade, with a foundation established by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) receiving NT$11 million, the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee’s investigation has found.
League ledgers documenting finances and donations over the past 10 years showed that the league under former chairwoman Cecilia Koo (辜嚴倬雲) had made a large number of donations to organizations founded by the KMT, making it one of the KMT “small coffers,” the committee said.
It issued a stern notice to the Koo family to return the league’s financial records prior to 2006, which went missing in May last year after Koo had them moved to Taiwan Cement Corp’s Taipei headquarters.
The committee would this week charge the Koo family with destroying evidence if they fail to return the missing documents, it said.
Meanwhile, the league in 2011 donated NT$9 million to the New Taiwanese Cultural Foundation, which was established by Ma, to fund its educational program for disaster-hit areas, the committee said, adding that it in 2016 made another NT$2 million donation to the foundation to fund its operations.
The league had in 2011 organized prayers in the Chiang Kai-shek Shilin Residence in Taipei, when the residence was transformed into a tourism facility and managed by the Chungcheng Cultural and Educational Foundation, which was founded with NT$150 million in donations by the KMT, it said.
The league made a total of NT$9 million in donations to the foundation over three years, with an additional NT$2.8 million to help it organize an exhibition about league founder Soong Mayling (宋美齡), Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) wife, the committee said.
Koo opposed the 2014 Sunflower movement and published an open letter in a newspaper under the league’s name, urging student protesters to terminate their occupation of the Legislative Yuan over a controversial cross-strait trade services agreement, it said.
The league also in 2014 made a NT$2 million donation to the Friends of the Police Association of Republic of China in appreciation of law enforcement officers during the movement, the committe said.
A NT$20 million donation was made in 2016 to St John’s University’s Department of Senior Citizen Service Business, of which Koo is the board director, the committee said, adding that the school has named several campus buildings after Koo for her contribution.
The committee organized two hearings about the status of the league on April 27 and July 18 last year, to which the league invited legal experts to dispute the league’s alleged affiliation with the KMT.
The league paid an attendance fee of NT$100,000 to each person invited to defend the league, while experts invited by the committee received only NT$2,000 for their presence at the hearings, the committee said.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS