Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
As part of the events celebrating the one-year anniversary of Ma's inauguration next week, the KMT will present a special report on Aug. 23 on the total value of its assets and how they have been handled under different chairmen dating back to the Chiang Kai-shek (
According to a story in the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday, the KMT once carried as much as NT$50 billion in debt because of improper investments made when Lee served as party chairman from 1988 to 2000.
Lee responds
At a gathering with the press yesterday in Kaohsiung, Lee denied the report's claim.
Lee said the KMT was in its heyday and was at its richest when he was chairman.
"I ordered that all the party's assets be compiled and found that the KMT had a total of about NT$100 billion in assets," Lee said in response to press queries.
Ma declined to comment on the matter, but promised yesterday that the KMT would outline to the public its party asset issue in details in two weeks.
KMT Deputy Secretary-General Chang Che-chen (張哲琛) and Lee Yung-ran (李永然), a lawyer who has been hired by the party to deal with the issue, will explain the KMT's handling of its assets in both legal and practical terms, Ma said.
The KMT amassed a vast empire of banks, investment companies, petrochemical firms and media outlets during its autocratic rule.
Amid accusations that the party acquired its assets illegally, the KMT has sold many of them, while former party chairman Lien Chan (
The party stepped up divestment of assets under Ma's leadership to ease its growing financial burden, selling three media outlets last December and its old headquarters in March.
In response to the government's demand for the party to return the assets, Ma said that it would only return "illegally acquired" assets and hasn't returned any assets to the government in the wake of the recent sales.
In other developments, Ma yesterday lashed out at President Chen Shui-bian's (
"Will people stop thinking that he is not corrupt if he changes the airport's name and criticize Ma Ying-jeou?" Ma said.
Chen on Saturday spoke of how the issue of a "Taiwanese identity" had created numerous political conflicts and that many in Taiwan held unrealistic fantasies about China. He also suggested that CKS airport be called Taipei Airport.
"President Chen is good at tossing out new topics, but it's useless to shift the focus now and make people believe that he is innocent and clean," Ma said.
Ho Min-hao (
Ho said he hoped this time the president meant what he said.
If Chen were to keep his promise, people would stand behind him, Ho said.
He said that Chen would have to overcome huge pressure from the US and China if he were to push for a new name and a new constitution for Taiwan.
However, if he eats his words yet again, he will lose credibility with the people altogether, Ho said.
Additional reporting by Jewel Huang and CNA
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai