The China Youth Corps yesterday said it would stage a protest on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei on Sunday against what it said is the government’s “controversial ruling” on its assets.
After determining in 2018 that the China Youth Corps was affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Executive Yuan’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee in July nationalized the group’s 61 properties and nearly NT$1.4 billion (US$43.6 million) in assets.
The corps must also pay an estimated NT$240.57 million in compensation for properties that had been sold to a third party and could not be returned to their rightful owners, the committee said.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The group “has no choice but to take to the streets” as the committee “laid charges against it out of hate” and the administrative remedies it sought were in vain, China Youth Corps chairman Ger Yeong-kuang (葛永光) said yesterday.
It does not oppose transitional justice and agrees that victims of the past authoritarian regime should be compensated, but “historical facts should be clarified,” he said.
Taiwan’s democracy has regressed, forcing the public to rebel, the group said, as it called for “righteousness, freedom and peace,” and for supporters to join the protest.
The objective of the protest is to “save the country” as cross-strait tensions escalate and the government said that Beijing might launch a war against Taiwan next year, Ger said.
“Taiwan needs to be united while facing this life-threatening crisis,” he added.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), former minister of education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基), former minister of health and welfare Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) and National Women’s League chair Joanna Lei (雷倩) have been invited to join the protest and to address the crowd, the China Youth Corps said.
However, as the protest is not an election campaign, no candidates for the Nov. 26 local elections have been invited to give speeches at the event, Ger said.
The China Youth Corps has notified police about the possibility of people carrying China’s five-star red flag during the protest, he added.
After announcing the details of the protest, China Youth Corps members pricked balloons imprinted with the slogans “punishing the minority,” “persecuting the innocent” and “ignoring human rights.”
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