Ending speculation about how a donation of NT$100 million earmarked for a recount of the ballots cast in the presidential election would be administrated, Kingston Technology representatives signed a contract yesterday with the Judicial Reform Foundation, turning the money over to the foundation and authorizing it to transfer the funds to suitable parties once the legal system has rendered a decision as to who is responsible for paying for the recount. The donation is being made by Kingston Technology founders David Sun (孫大衛) and John Tu (杜紀川).
"The ballot recount is a legal matter. It seems fitting that we are turning this donation over to an organization specializing in law," said Kingston representative and general manager Daniel Hsu (許勝章).
Recently, Sun announced that he -- with the support of Kingston co-owner Tu -- hoped to donate the NT$100 million to the recount effort, through a "neutral" agency. Sun said that he wanted the recount to be carried out as soon as possible so that post-election turmoil could be brought to an end.
In the aftermath of the presidential elections last month, the cost of the ballot recount, estimated to be around NT$20 million, has been a focus of conflict between the pan-green and pan-blue camps.
Originally seeking to work with the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, Kingston decided to make its donation through the foundation when the church decided at its annual organizational conference in Changhua on Wednesday that it did not want to become involved with the donation.
The church said that it would not accept responsibility for the donation because of its obligations as a non-governmental entity.
After consultations with Kingston's legal counsel -- John Chen (
Hsu said that Kingston was handing over all responsibility for the donation to the foundation.
Foundation representatives present at the signing expressed gratitude to Kingston and promised to turn over the money to an appropriate party once the courts make their decision on who should pay for the recount.
That party will need to apply for the funds within 15 days of an official court decision, the foundation said.
The foundation also said that funds left over after the vote recount is completed would be used to promote ethnic reconciliation, human rights education, legal reforms and legal education.
If no one claims the money, the entire amount will go toward these initiatives.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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