The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday accused the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of overseeing a “witch hunt” against its opponents, after the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee requested materials from the party for an investigation into the controversial sale of the Zhongxing Shanzhuang (中興山莊) plot.
In 2005, developer Yuanlih Group bought parcels of the land, which houses the KMT’s Institute of Revolutionary Practice, from the party for NT$3.83 billion (US$127.63 million at the current exchange rate), with the aim of building a residential high-rise.
KMT Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said that after receiving the committee’s request to review its files, the KMT opened its doors, as it has nothing to hide.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
However, he called the request “foul play” and described it as nothing more than a “political maneuver.”
The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee demanded to review files related to the party’s annual income and expenditure, as well as meeting minutes from the 1950s and 1960s, as part of the probe into whether the KMT illegally acquired the plot in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山).
The legality of the sale was questioned after Yeh Sung-jen (葉頌仁), whose father owned four parcels of the land, sought a ruling from the committee after he failed to convince a court that KMT officials forced his father to sell them the land in 1962.
The committee asked the Taipei City Government not to issue the developer a construction permit due to the controversy, but in July last year it did so anyway as part of urban renewal efforts.
Chiu said that despite the Supreme Court in 2011 ruling that there was no coercion involved when the KMT purchased the land from Yeh’s father, the committee has continued with the probe, holding two hearings in 2017 and another last month.
Besides trying to smear the KMT, the committee is seeking evidence so that it can retaliate against Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who approved the construction permit, he said.
It is “regrettable” to see the lengths to which the committee is willing to go to take down its enemies, he added.
“If that is not a witch hunt, then I do not know what is,” Chiu said.
Committee spokesman Sun Pin (孫斌) urged the KMT not to politicize the probe, saying that the committee made the request after the party sent the committee a letter welcoming it to view the files.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang and CNA
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS