Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said he has ordered all Taipei City Government departments to draft a complete list of all municipal property, after discovering that the controversial bus lane on Zhongxiao W Road includes a bus stop that is not listed as belonging to the city.
The move followed a statement by city government spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) that said former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) administration had failed to turn over a detailed inventory of city property when it handed over power to Ko’s administration.
“Because a substantial portion of the inventory was done carelessly, it is necessary to review all property records,” Ko said. “While roadside structures are difficult to inventory and it is unclear how they should be registered, they are still municipal property.”
Lee Kun-chen (李昆振), a section chief at the Taipei Transportation Department’s planning division, said that the city’s bus stops are normally not registered as belonging to the local government, but that the department is now reconsidering this.
Ko also criticized Hau’s management of city-directed construction projects, including the 2017 Universiade athletes’ village in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口) and a planned underground tunnel linking the Taipei Dome and the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
Meanwhile, Ko criticized the National Taxation Bureau of the Northern Area, amid reports that it summoned his parents to provide documentation showing that NT$10 million (US$313,000) they gave him to buy a new house had been a personal “loan” and not a “gift,” which would make it liable for taxation.
The move sparked speculation that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is targeting the independent mayor.
“The election is over,” Ko said. “This way of doing things goes beyond the scope of what ordinary citizens will stand for.”
He asked rhetorically if the government had nothing better to do, asking why officials had suddenly become so “industrious.”
Ko refused to comment further on the bureau’s actions, instead calling repeatedly for a “high-enough ranking” bureau official to give a public explanation before he says anything more on the issue.
“No one makes their children write out a receipt when lending them money,” Ko’s mother, Ho Jui-ying (何瑞英), said separately yesterday.
In a statement, the bureau said it was simply carrying out its duty to investigate all reports of tax fraud.
Bureau Director-General Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) was quoted by media as saying that the bureau had intentionally waited until last year’s Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections were over before pursuing the case against Ko’s parents.
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS