Control Yuan member Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) yesterday publicized the findings of his investigation into the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) party assets that spanned 14 years and six months, calling the KMT assets “the Ring” — alluding to an object with strong, alluring powers that is hard to give up, from The Lord of the Rings.
A two-term Control Yuan member who has not been nominated to serve another term, Huang told a press conference in Taipei that he wanted to finalize the case before leaving the post as he does “not expect that there will be another member who will continue the task.”
“The KMT’s party assets are the product of an authoritarian party-state and have to be terminated for the soundness and consolidation of Taiwan’s party politics and, thereby, its democracy,” he said. “Of all the democratic countries in the world, there is no other democracy that has been troubled by a party’s assets for more than 20 years.”
He and other members who worked on the case have summarized the party’s assets into three types that they believe are of questionable origin: 114 houses and their bases that were taken over from the Japanese colonial government, 19 theaters turned over to the party for its management by the provincial special administration that was in operation from 1945 to 1947, and at least 79 public properties and 34 buildings given by local governments to the party as gifts.
More than 14 years of investigations have witnessed the party announcing its willingness to return the properties whose origins have been in doubt and actually returning some of them, Huang said.
“But the process is not complete,” he added, saying that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — who claimed in 2005 in his capacity as party chairman that the KMT would have the party-asset issue settled by 2008 — “is guilty of dereliction of duty.”
Huang said that Ma, compared with his predecessors, is probably the KMT party chairman that has exhibited the most positive attitude toward returning party assets and was once the most resolute, “but it is now 2014 and his promise has not yet been made good.”
The legislation process for regulations on political parties’ assets procured through illegitimate means has also been encountering setbacks, according to Huang.
The draft act proposed by the Executive Yuan when the Democratic Progressive Party was in power was three times sent to the Legislative Yuan, where the KMT was the majority as it is now, but every time failed to be scheduled by the Procedure Committee to be referred to the related standing committee for deliberation.
After the KMT returned to power, there have been only two meetings at the legislature’s joint committee session, in 2012, to discuss related regulations, and no result has been achieved, Huang said.
“Only when ‘the Ring’ disappears from Taiwan’s political scene can the political playing field be leveled and the spirit of social justice be materialized,” he said.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS