The Cabinet yesterday called on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to show its sincerity to return party assets improperly acquired during its 50-year reign, including media outlets, land, houses and cinemas.
"In addition to the Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC), China Television (CTV) and three other media outlets, the KMT should make good on its promise to return seven cinemas and 165 parcels of land and houses," Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) told a press conference yesterday afternoon.
In the run-up to the presidential election in 2000 and this year, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
While the KMT claimed that it has returned 121 parcels of land and houses, Chen said that the National Property Bureau has not yet received any. The KMT has also been accused of dilly-dallying in conducting talks with the Cabinet's five-person task force to address the issue.
Chen made the appeal following the KMT's plan to sell its stakes in BCC, CTV, the Central Motion Picture Corp and the Central Daily News to a foreign investor.
Party authorities are hoping to pick up NT$8 billion (US$235 million) by selling shares in the four companies in a block.
Through the party-run Hua-Hsia Investment Holding Co, the KMT owns a 65 percent stake in CTV and a 96.95 percent stake in BCC, a radio station that occupies 25 percent of the AM frequency and 13.96 percent of the FM frequency available to stations.
One of the prospective buyers is Sycamore Ventures, once part of the US-based Citibank Venture Capital, and the highest bidder so far. Citibank Venture Capital is a subsidiary of Citicorp.
The KMT has to close the deal by the end of next year in accordance with the Broadcasting and Television Law (廣電法), which stipulates that political parties are no longer allowed to manage media outlets.
The Government Information Office (GIO), the supervisory body of the media industry, has made it clear that the KMT will be breaking the Broadcasting and Television Law if it let foreign investors own shares of media outlets, directly or indirectly.
Foreign investors are banned from ownership in the media industry, according to the law.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard