Warning that organized crime and money politics (
Chien said the data had been compiled from a National Police Administration report on the involvement of gangsters in construction project bid-rigging.
The elected representatives, he said, include 88 deputies sitting on county or city councils, five legislators, and seven National Assembly deputies -- who he claimed were either involved in fraud, extortion or intimidation.
Chien blamed the problem on what he termed the "conniving attitude" of the KMT, which he said has used economic interests to win over local political factions to strengthen its power base.
"Gangsters share prosperity with the KMT," Chien said.
Chien said traditionally, the party offered special favors to local political factions by allowing them to run underground businesses -- such as night clubs and gambling dens -- in exchange for their support in elections.
While gangsters were usually involved in the running of such clandestine businesses, they were also used by political factions in vote-buying operations, Chien said.
Moreover, gangsters themselves have begun running for public offices, making their way into the political system, usually making use of intimidation and vote-buying to gain victory.
The influence of organized crime in Taiwan politics has long been a target of criticism by Taiwan's opposition parties. Former Justice Minister Liao Cheng-hao (
Yan Jiann-fa (
"Under the system of party politics, the KMT has seen a more urgent need to consolidate its power through firmer collaboration with local factions and gangsters," Yan said.
Yan predicted that in the upcoming presidential election, local gangsters and business conglomerates will closely hook up with the KMT, because they will also need to stand up for the status quo to protect their interests.
Kenneth Lin (
"Once cross-strait relations become tense, people become tolerant of problems like gangster-money politics," Lin said.
The problem should be high-lighted in this election, he added, and can only be resolved after a different political party takes power.
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
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MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
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