It's far too late to reclaim `stolen' assets: official

The properties that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) sold recently could be construed as having once belonged to the government, but the statute of limitations on their recovery has long since expired, Vice Minister of Finance Lee Jui-chang (李瑞倉) said yesterday.

In a briefing to the Taiwan Solidarity Union's legislative caucus (TSU), Lee said the real estate occupied by the Central Motion Picture Corp and Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC), the two companies sold by the KMT, was either transferred to the party at no cost by the KMT government when Taiwan was handed over to the Republic of China by Japan at the end of World War II, or was purchased by the party afterward with money provided by the government.

However, since the property has been registered as belonging to the two companies for several decades, the government has no right to reclaim the plots of land as the statute of limitations of 20 years has long since run out, Lee said.

The land in question has been in the news since the KMT sold it along with the China Television Co to a private investment company on Dec. 26, a move that was criticized by the TSU as a KMT attempt to dump its "ill-gotten assets."

At the same event yesterday, Government Information Office Minister Pasuya Yao (姚文智) told the TSU legislative caucus that his office has asked the Jung Li Investment Company, the buyer of the three KMT media outlets, to explain how it had financed the purchase since the company only has registered capital of NT$400 million.

Yao said he would like to find out if hidden foreign investors were part of the deal.

Foreign ownership of local media is forbidden by the Broadcasting and Television Law (廣播電視法).