A National Communications Commission (NCC) investigation has confirmed that Taiwan Broadband Communications (TBC, 台灣寬頻) indirectly received funding from China through Asia Pay Television Trust (APTT), which was created by its major shareholder, but the amount accounted for less than 1 percent of the issued trust certificates.
APTT is owned by Macquarie Group, TBC’s largest shareholder.
Lawmakers on Monday asked the commission to investigate if the Singapore-listed trust fund had accepted Chinese investment and report back to them in two days.
The request followed a report in the Chinese-language China Times on Monday that APTT had received funds from Chinese investors.
Commission spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said the report was delivered to the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning, but he refused to reveal the results.
“The investigation was conducted at the request of the legislators, so we leave it to them to disclose the results,” Yu said. “If you wrote a letter to someone, would it be appropriate for you to tell a third party what the letter was about before the recipient read it?”
A copy of the report obtained by the Taipei Times from a source at the legislature showed 37 units of APTT were owned by investors who might be from China, although they accounted for about 0.06 percent of the trust certificates.
Based on the report, APTT told the investors to sell the units based on the trust deed. Should the investors fail to sell the units within a set time, the trust fund manager can force a sale.
Yu said that cable service operator TBC would not be fined if the trust fund was found to have accepted Chinese investment.
“The trust deed clearly states what the manager would do if they found Chinese had invested in the trust fund,” Yu said. “The commission was aware of the deed, and that was why we approved of the TBC’s change of overseas investment last week. Nothing that has happened was a surprise to us.”
Yu said the NCC would take action if Macquarie fails to follows the deed, and could ask it to withdraw its investment if necessary.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary