The state's highest watchdog body, the Control Yuan, yesterday interviewed former director-general of the National Police Administration Ding Yuan-chin (
In a press conference afterwards, Ding said that the sources of the money which he spent in purchasing the house were all legitimate.
Ding owns a house in a high-class villa community called Vision City (
Last week two New Party Taipei City councilors claimed that Ding purchased the house at half price from the construction firm Hualon Corp (華隆集團). They also said that the price of the house was too high for someone with Ding's salary, that there was no record of Ding having taken out a loan and that his bank savings had not decreased.
There was an obvious implication that Ding was in receipt of undeclared financial assets which may have been acquired illegally.
Control Yuan members Li Shen-yi (
Ding last week released a written statement in which he stated that he was not corrupt. Yesterday at 3pm he made his first public appearance after being accused by the city councilors, taking part in a two-hour interview.
Ding said the price of the Vision City house was NT$325,000 per ping (one ping =3.3m2), not the rumored NT$200,000.
He said this was the market price in 1999, the year he bought the house.
He said the money which he used to buy the house included the profit gained from the sale of an apartment on Taipei's Hsinsheng North Road (
"And the friend is not Ong Da-ming (翁大銘)," he said. Ong is the CEO of the Hualon Corp and the person with whom Ding was rumored to have a financial connection.
The Control Yuan members said that according to their findings, the 106-ping Vision City house cost Ding NT$38.15 million.
As for why Ding's bank savings had not decreased, Ding said that he had borrowed the money from his friend in his son's name, using another apartment in Taipei's Peining Road (北寧路) as collateral.
The Peining Road apartment was also targeted by councilors, but Ding said he bought the apartment for his son in 1988, using money left by his father.
He said he was also planning to sell that apartment.
"That is to say, I am using two apartments to purchase one house," he said.
Li and Chao, meanwhile, said the Control Yuan would continue to investigate and establish the truth as soon as possible.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the