Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said he has never been to a plot of land zoned for farming that he co-owns in Hsinchu City and it had been paved before he purchased it.
A political pundit on Tuesday reported that farmland co-owned by Ko had been used as a parking lot for tour buses.
Ko on Wednesday confirmed that he and other physicians own five of the 24 parcels of land on the plot.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
On Thursday, he said through a TPP spokesperson he would deal with the situation after learning that parking fees had been collected from use of the land without a permit to do so.
Work to restore the parking lot to farmland began on Friday. Earthwork operators broke up the asphalt and found metal fragments beneath it.
City councilors at the site to witness the procedure reported that bricks, cement and iron rebar were dug up.
The councilors said they suspected it was industrial waste, but the Hsinchu Bureau of Environmental Protection said that preliminary observations indicated that no industrial or construction waste was found.
Asked about the allegations that waste had been dumped there, Ko said he has never been to the site and that to his knowledge, the land was already paved when they bought it.
If there is anything buried there, it must have been dumped by others before they purchased it in 2008, he said.
Later yesterday, Ko attended large campaign rallies at Hsinchu Municipal Stadium and in Kaohsiung.
The TPP said that more than 8,000 people attended the Hsinchu event, while the Kaohsiung event organizer said that more than 50,000 people attended.
He told the crowds that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) does not communicate with China, while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) ties to Beijing are opaque.
Only the TPP does not have the burden of the DPP’s Taiwanese independence tag or the so-called “1992 consensus,” so it will be able to achieve cross-strait autonomy while maintaining communication with China, and Taiwan’s democratic political system and lifestyle.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Democracy is a universal value that has changed Taiwan and will eventually change China, he said.
Hopefully, Taiwan can be a bridge for communication between China and the US, he said.
Meanwhile, in the face of China’s threats, Taiwan must prepare for war and not be afraid, he said.
Taiwan must be capable of fighting a war, but not seek out conflict, Ko said, adding that he does not want unification with China nor independence at this time, but to maintain Taiwan’s free and democratic system.
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