Irked by the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) dillydallying in returning its stolen assets, the Cabinet yesterday called on Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to use his political stature to pressure KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰).
"While we're calling on Lien to face the problem fair and square, we also hope Mayor Ma, who has expressed concern over the issue, will persuade Lien to demonstrate some courage and sincerity to return 479 pieces of property improperly acquired by the party and currently under the investigation of the Control Yuan," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
Lin called on the KMT to furnish related documents to shed light on the thorny issue instead of asking the government to do so.
"It's absolutely preposterous to ask us to produce such documents," he said.
Lin made the remarks yesterday afternoon after the KMT postponed the meeting with officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet's five-person task force set up to tackle the issue of assets stolen by the KMT.
Claiming yesterday's meeting was "inconvenient," the KMT told Cabinet officials to come back on Friday to discuss the matter with the party's lawyers.
According to Lin, the KMT has canceled similar meetings three times since last month when the Cabinet set up the task force.
"We're disappointed with the KMT's shunning the problem and its violent way of handling the matter," Lin said. "I'm afraid it will be rather hard to reclaim the state assets filched by the KMT if the situation doesn't improve."
To date, not a single piece of property inappropriately acquired by the KMT and pledged to be returned to the state has been returned, Lin said.
The KMT has promised to hand over seven cinemas and two buildings owned by the party. The two buildings are the Shih Chien Building and Shih Chien Hall on Chunghua Road, Taipei. The theaters are located across the country.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun had hoped to see the cinemas and two buildings returned to the state before the Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 22 this year.
Lin also called on Lien to stop lying and deceiving the government and public, as he tenaciously holds on to his dubious family wealth.
In related news, the Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan (
The alliance also plans to mobilize 10,000 people to besiege the headquarters after the Lunar New Year to ask the party to return the assets. The group will also call on the KMT to rename its headquarters the "colonial history museum of Taiwan."
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
CLOSER TO CHINA: The upgraded Type-12 missile has a range of about 1,000km, compared with the original model’s range of 200km, and can reach mainland China Japan is preparing to deploy its first batch of domestically developed long-range missiles, with their launchers arriving at an army camp yesterday, as the country accelerates its offensive capability in response to rising challenges in the region. The upgraded Type-12 land-to-ship missiles are to be deployed at Camp Kengun in Japan’s southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto by the end of this month, completing the process of deployment, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said without giving details. Army vehicles carrying the launchers and other equipment arrived past midnight in a highly secretive mission criticized by residents. Dozens of people stood outside of the
RSS