Central Investment Co, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) only remaining company, yesterday dismissed allegations that part of Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) would be returned to the company.
The KMT sold BCC to Jungli Investment Co in 2005 for approximately NT$9.3 billion (US$282 million). China Television Co and the Central Motion Picture Corp were also included in the deal. The company later sold BCC to current BCC chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) in 2006.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) yesterday reported that Jaw applied to the National Communications Commission (NCC) last year to divide BCC into two companies, BCC and an asset management company, in an attempt to return the NT$7 billion company to Central Investment Co.
Wang Hai-ching (汪海清), general manager of Central Investment Co, yesterday dismissed the report, saying that the KMT had carried out its promise of divesting the party of its media interests when it sold the three companies.
Wang said Jaw applied to divide BCC in order to follow the NCC’s regulations in preparation for the radio station’s stock being officially listed on the stock exchange.
The Central Investment Co no longer owns a share holding in BCC and it was Jaw’s right to handle the company as he saw fit, Wang said.
“The sale was complicated, but it was handled according to the law,” Wang told a press conference at the KMT headquarters.
Wang declined to comment on whether or not Jaw would keep only BCC and return the asset management company to Central Investment Co.
Wang said prosecutors began an investigation into the KMT’s handling of the sale of the three media outlets under the Democratic Progressive Party government. He urged the public to respect the investigation, which had not discovered anything illegal about the sale and to stop damaging the KMT’s reputation with groundless accusations.
The KMT placed the Central Investment Co into trust in 2007 following Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) pledge to resolve the party assets issue during his time as party chairman. The company was expected to have been sold, but the party continues to own the firm.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS