The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said that it suspects the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is trying to sell its party assets before an anticipated Presidential Office handover to the DPP next year.
The DPP caucus told a news conference in Taipei that the Chinese-language Commercial Times has been publishing advertisements calling for buyers for 26 plots owned by the KMT — three in Taipei, six in Taichung and 17 in Changhua — and for 80 percent of the shares of a hotel in Palau.
“The contact address for all of these advertisements points to the KMT headquarters on Bade Road in Taipei,” DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said.
Photo: Lu Chun-wei, Taipei Times
Lee questioned whether the KMT is trying to sell out its party assets in different batches in order to avoid possible calls for the recovery of funds following the potential change to the nation’s governing party next year.
DPP Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that according to the information made available by the land plots’ price registration system, the money that could be amassed by the sale of the plots and the hotel shares could total more than NT$1.4 billion (US$42.27 million).
DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) asked whether KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) is selling the party assets to raise the funds needed to cover the party’s election expenses, “probably including vote-buying.”
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“Chu is the commander-in-chief of land speculation, with his party’s sales of plots of valued land,” Chen said.
Buyers are advised against purchasing these plots at a low price, as they are ill-gotten gains, DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said.
She also questioned why an affidavit of confidentiality needs to be signed when making bids for the party’s assets, as the party has demanded.
Former DPP spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said that she has been collecting information about the asset sales for a while, stressing that she first noticed an advertisement in the Commercial Times last month calling for buyers for a hotel in Palau, and last week noticed plots for sale in Tanzih (潭子), Taichung, and Wenshan (文山), Taipei, “the ads of which were only a day apart.”
“And two months ago I found out that the KMT was selling land in Changhua, totaling about 7,400 ping (2.446 hectares), which had been leased to RT-Mart, but has recently been taken back for sale,” Hsu said.
The contact address for the four ads is the KMT’s central headquarters and the contact number is the KMT’s number with various extensions, she said.
Hsu also pointed out that the KMT has established two foundations recently.
“Compounding the land sales, it makes one wonder what the KMT is up to,” she said.
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