The family of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taichung by-election candidate Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) owns a guest house that was built illegally on national property, National Property Administration Taichung Central District (中區) Division Director Chao Tzu-hsien (趙子賢) said yesterday.
The guest house in Taichung’s Nantun District (南屯) occupies two plots of national land, Chao said, adding that he would commission a lawyer to set up the process of having the building demolished and the land returned to the government, as well as to seek an indictment.
Allegations that the guest house was illegally constructed had prompted calls for an investigation by city officials, so Chao went to survey the property and confirm whether it was illegal.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
“Looking at aerial photographs we confirmed that the building was constructed in 2004. This use of the land breaches the regulations,” he said. “We will have the property returned and proceed with a legal investigation.”
The building of the guest house might also involve breaches of the Criminal Code, which would be determined by prosecutors via an investigation, he said.
Yen Kuan-heng’s brother, Yen Jen-hsien (顏仁賢), yesterday said that the property would be demolished in two weeks.
Democratic Progressive Party Taichung by-election candidate Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) yesterday said that public figures should “work for the benefit of the public, not for their own benefit of that of their family.”
Voters would use the news as important information when deciding who to vote for in Sunday’s by-election, she said.
The by-election to fill the seat for Taichung’s second electoral district follows the recall of former legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party in October.
Additional reporting by Ou Su-mei
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS