The Taichung City Government on Monday sent officials to inspect an alleged illegal building in the city’s Longjing District (龍井) registered in the name of the wife of Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate in a Jan. 9 by-election for Taichung’s second electoral district.
Inspectors from the Taichung Land Administration Office were refused entry at the front gate and could only take photographs of the site, a mansion and gardens in a rural setting, from the outside.
Taichung City Councilor Cho Kuan-ting (卓冠廷) said he has obtained records from National Property Administration that show that it is an illegal structure as it was built on public land, portions of which are a protected area.
Photo: CNA
Construction of the mansion began in 2012 and it was registered in the name of Yen’s wife, Chen Li-ling (陳麗凌).
The inspectors said that they had been turned away, as the people inside, reportedly Yen’s family members, had refused to open the gate.
They said that official notification had been sent to the address, mandating that the local government inspection has a 14-day deadline and after that the Taichung Urban Renewal Bureau would have another 14 days to delineate the boundaries of the public land and protected area.
After that, notification could be sent to order the demolition of structures which are illegally occupying public land and the protected area.
Critics have said that would be after the by-election and it is too easy for Yen to drag the process out even longer.
Cho and other councilors have alleged that the Yen is being protected by Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) of the KMT, who is said to have good relationship with the family.
Yen has also been resisting demolishing another building, already deemed an illegal construction, in Nantun District (南屯), a private resort owned by the Yen family which covers more than 2,000m2.
The land is owned by the local government and is reserved for developing a children’s recreational park.
The city government had issued a Dec. 13 deadline for the Nantun building to be demolished, but Yen had only partially demolished an exterior wall and small sections of the main structure.
Taichung City Councilor Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said that Yen is using the same delaying tactics at both properties, but the city government has not taken action and it is shielding the Yen family’s illegal acquisition and occupation of public land.
Former legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) and Taichung City councilors have circulated a map of the city with more than 70 red dots, which they say are properties reportedly owned by the Yen family.
They allege that the Yen family has used illegal means, such as unpaid bank loans, illegal takeover of public land and rezoning to seize the properties, while most people cannot afford to buy just one property in most cities in Taiwan.
The Jan. 9 by-election was a result of Chen Po-wei being recalled in an Oct. 23 vote, when the KMT joined forces with the Yen family and other pan-blue groups to oust the former legislator.
Yen has disclosed his personal assets ahead of the election — 67 plots of land and 10 buildings, mainly in the Taichung area, bank deposits of NT$27 million (US$975,257) and stock valued at NT$13.84 million.
Financial expert Hsu Chin-huang (徐嶔煌) estimated Yen’s net worth at more than NT$1 billion.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS