The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should make public the sources of its campaign funding for the legislative elections, the pan-blue alliance demanded yesterday, voicing suspicions that the DPP administration has been improperly using the political clout of major party-affiliated government officials to put pressure on businesses.
The legislative caucuses of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) yesterday said the huge amounts of money the DPP has been able to raise and spend on its legislative campaign this year was suspicious.
The two opposition parties' legislative caucuses yesterday held press conferences in response to media reports that the DPP has raised its fundraising goal by NT$30 million to NT$90 million.
The DPP's fundraising goals have been a source of contention for the pan-blue camp since the figures were made public last month. According to these goals, Vice President Annette Lu (
In response to the DPP's fundraising expectations for party-affiliated heads of state-run companies, KMT legislative caucus whip Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) said that the DPP has violated the spirit of the Political Donation Law (政治獻金法), which he said was meant to limit donations from big businesses to the government.
Huang said the reason why the DPP has been able to hold so many campaign events and rallies this year is because it has opened a "government-business intermediary company," estimating that the DPP must have spent at least NT$700 million on rallies thus far.
KMT spokesman Chang Jung-kung (
"We are very envious of a party that claims to have no party assets, yet has the huge amount of money it takes to hold large-scale rallies like it's been doing," Chang said.
"If the DPP is using party members that are heads of state-run industries for donations, we wonder if the national treasury has become the party treasury. By having the nation's premier and vice premier collect donations, we wonder, have there been any `unwilling' donations? Also, among those donating, how many are there with impure motives?" Chang asked.
"We ask the DPP to publicize its donation sources. Otherwise, it means that the DPP is using its political power to expand those assets that will never see the light of day," Chang said, adding that he was not aware of any large contributions to the KMT's campaign fund.
"We have gotten a number of small donations, since the current position of the KMT is felt by the public. Luckily, there are many justice-loving citizens who are willing to give us the small amount of money it takes to run our ads," Chang said.
The KMT greatly scaled down campaigning this year due to its apparently risky financial situation.
Although the KMT could offer no proof of its suspicions yesterday, the PFP's legislative caucus urged businesses to come forward if they have been forced to donate money by the DPP.
PFP party whip Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) implied that the PFP had proof that the DPP had exerted political pressure on a marine shipping company to donate money for the March presidential election, adding that the PFP would help those who come forward to take legal action.
Without giving further details, Liu called on Yang Ming Marine Transport (
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater