The office of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday announced belt-tightening measures and asked for public donations to sustain its daily operations until February after a recent amendment revoked Chen’s perks as a former head of state.
Chen Sung-shan (陳淞山), manager of Chen’s office, said it would continue to operate despite the financial difficulty. To sustain the NT$540,000 (US$16,800) monthly expenses, he said the office would implement austerity measures to cut costs.
The five office employees have agreed to a salary cut of 20 percent and the Neo Formosa Weekly magazine will become a biweekly publication, he said.
PHOTO: CNA
BOOK REVENUE
They also hoped to raise some money when the office launches a book written by the former president.
Chen Sung-shan urged the public to make donations of small amounts, saying they hoped to raise NT$4 million to finance daily operations until February. If things did not go well, he said he was willing to borrow money with his own credit.
Since the “one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait alliance” has 35 members standing in the November elections, Chen Sung-shan said he was confident that between 80 percent and 90 percent of them would be elected and then they could address the funding problem.
The legislature on Aug. 19 passed an amendment to the Act Governing Preferential Treatment for Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents (卸任總統副總統禮遇條例) introduced by the KMT caucus.
The amendment stipulates that former presidents and vice presidents will be stripped of courtesy treatment, including their monthly allowance and annual expenses, if convicted by a court of grave offenses, such as sedition or graft.
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The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
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REWRITING HISTORY: China has been advocating a ‘correct’ interpretation of the victory over Japan that brings the CCP’s contributions to the forefront, an expert said An elderly Chinese war veteran’s shin still bears the mark of a bullet wound he sustained when fighting the Japanese as a teenager, a year before the end of World War II. Eighty years on, Li Jinshui’s scar remains as testimony to the bravery of Chinese troops in a conflict that killed millions of their people. However, the story behind China’s overthrow of the brutal Japanese occupation is deeply contested. Historians broadly agree that credit for victory lies primarily with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led Republic of China (ROC) Army. Its leader, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a
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