Three senior opposition politicians were yesterday accused of having formed a triumvirate to gain control over national assets during the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) 50 years in power.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (
She said one case in point was the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC), in which the KMT owns shares, acquiring land in Panchiao, Taipei County, that had been mandated by the former Directorate of Taiwan Telecommunications (
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
Yeh claimed the KMT had illegitimately interfered in the transfer of ownership. The BCC took control of the land when the telecommunications directorate was transformed into the Directorate of Northern Taiwan Telecommunications (
"Lien was really good at financial management. He not only managed his family property well, but also taught the BCC how to get the land by illegal means," Yeh said, citing official documents of the then Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC).
At the time Lien was the minister of Transportation and Communications, while Soong chaired the KMT-run Hua-Hsia Investment Holding Co (
Yeh said suspicions that the former minister had been involved in the transfer of property were raised after the telecommunications directorate complained that the land had been misappropriated. He did not demand that the BCC return the mandate to gain ownership, but instead asked the MOTC to apply for the Executive Yuan's approval of the BCC's mandate on the state-owned land, she said.
The BCC obtained ownership of the land in 1985, after Soong had asked the KMT government to request a change of ownership to the BCC. Yeh said the KMT government's approval of the transfer of ownership had no legal foundation.
She said Lin should also shoulder some of the responsibility, as he had remained silent about the property transfer.
The BCC responded to Yeh's challenge in a press release later yesterday, saying the DPP legislator's accusations were aimed at tarnishing the image of the KMT and its politicians.
But Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘), who also attended yesterday's media conference, expressed firm support for Yeh. He said that restoring pan-blue leaders to power would bring the country back to "black-gold" politics.
Chen also said that Lien had failed to realize his 2000 election campaign promise that the KMT would return the assets it had acquired illegally.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
RSS