The government could take over the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) headquarters in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) if Central Investment Co (中央投資) — a KMT-funded holding company that owns the building — is found to be an illegally obtained asset, Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.
Koo said the committee is to hold an extraordinary meeting today to determine the status of Central Investment and its spinoff, Hsinyutai Co (欣裕台).
If the two companies are recognized as ill-gotten party assets, properties registered under the two companies — including the KMT headquarters — will be transferred to the government, Koo said during a radio interview on Wednesday.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
If Central Investment is ordered to return the property to the state, the building could be used for public purposes, such as a library, after a lease between the KMT and Central Investment expires, Koo said.
There are 18 firms registered under Central Investment, including the Chinese-language China Daily News, a construction company, a hotel in Palau and a British Virgin Island-registered company, and they will have to be returned to the state if their parent company is deemed to be ill-gotten assets, he added.
KMT officials condemned what they said were illegal and unconstitutional acts by the committee, adding that the party would take legal action if Central Investment was declared an ill-gotten asset.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The KMT provided the committee with a number of documents, which it said showed that the founding capital of Central Investment was obtained from legitimate sources, such as party membership fees and political donations, as well as profits generated by a KMT-owned company, KMT Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said.
“The KMT has provided proof of the legitimacy of that income, but the committee has not taken this evidence into consideration and [plans to] recognize that income as having been obtained illegally,” Chiu said.
“History will remember if the committee decides to act regardless of the facts and do whatever it wants,” Chiu said.
According to the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例), the KMT should be given one year to declare its assets before the committee determines the status of these assets, he said.
While the committee already recognized Central Investment as a KMT-affiliated organization, it apparently plans to rule on the company’s assets before the KMT has submitted an asset declaration, a move that runs counter to the act, Chiu said.
Central Investment chairman Gordon Chen (陳樹) echoed Chiu’s sentiment, saying the company should be given one year to identify its sources of capital, which he said was collected from at least 16 companies in addition to the KMT.
Prior to that, the committee cannot not make a determination on the company’s assets, Chen said.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
Japan and the Philippines yesterday signed a defense pact that would allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China’s growing aggression in the region and to bolster their preparation for natural disasters. Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be a survival-threatening situation for Japan, triggering a military response. Japan and the Philippines have also had separate territorial conflicts with Beijing in the East and South China
RSS