Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday accused the media of invading his privacy, amid reports that he had purchased a luxury apartment in Taipei in 2011 and questions about how he financed the purchase.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate purchased a 90 ping (298m2) apartment in Nangang District (南港) for more than NT$70 million (US$2.3 million at the current exchange rate) and sold it in 2015 at a loss of about 3.5 percent, the Chinese-language Next Magazine reported on Wednesday.
Han yesterday fired back on Facebook.
Photo: CNA
“A simple and legal sale has been publicized during this period leading up to the elections at the expense of an individual’s privacy,” he wrote. “I strongly question the motivations of the people who leaked the information.”
He condemned the media interest in a 2011 purchase, saying that he and his wife, Lee Chia-fen (李佳芬), had not been obliged to reveal details of their assets at the time, as neither held public office.
Only Taiwan Fertilizer Co’s (台肥) construction arm and the National Taxation Bureau would have information about the transaction, which raised questions about where the magazine got its information, he said.
Government agencies should investigate any improper leaks of personal information, he told reporters in Hsinchu.
“This is not about me, but about the rights of nation’s 23 million citizens,” Han said.
Han campaign office spokesman Ye Yuan-zhi (葉元之) echoed that concern.
“It is very frightening that such private information from years ago could be obtained by others after Han announced his presidential bid,” Ye said.
Han sold the apartment in 2016 before applying for a mortgage, because he realized that his family could not afford it, and he lost more than NT$2 million in the sale, Ye said.
Responding to Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) Legislator Lin Chun-hsien’s (林俊憲) allegation that Han had used his political connections to demand a 20-year loan of more than NT$14 million from Taiwan Fertilizer to make the 2011 purchase, Ye said the company offered loans to all buyers of its units.
The DPP is apparently attempting to defame Han with rumors, Ye said.
Taiwan Fertilizer yesterday said that had offered a loan to Han and “every buyer who needed it.”
Next Magazine yesterday issued a statement saying that it had obtained information about Han’s Nangang purchase from a combination of sources, including court records, residents in the apartment complex, real-estate agents and people close to the Han family.
It also verified the information with Han’s campaign office spokeswoman Ho Ting-huan (何庭歡) before publishing the story, it said.
“Mayor Han tried to dismiss the media’s responsibility to keep the government in check by labeling the story as an invasion of privacy. That is not the right attitude for any politician who might shoulder the responsibility of running the nation in the future,” the magazine said.
Asked about Han’s Facebook post, Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊) said that Han is welcome to provide evidence that the government leaked his personal information.
“We would support the police and prosecutors handling such a case according to strict standards,” she said.
Asked by reporters about Han’s claims, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that claims about the government abusing its power should be supported with evidence.
“A while ago, there was a [purported] tracking device, and we still do not know what happened with that one,” Tsai said, referring to Han’s claim in August that “the state apparatus” might have installed a tracking device on his vehicle.
Additional reporting by Chang Huei-wen
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS