A member of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee (CSC) yesterday lashed out at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for failing to explain to the party’s top decisionmaking body how the party plans to deal with its assets.
The issue of the KMT’s assets — which critics describe as “ill-gotten” wealth — has come to the fore again after the Executive Yuan passed a draft political party act last month. The draft stipulates that political parties should not operate or invest in profit-making enterprises and must transfer ownership of or sell off shares in enterprises within two years, or failing that, place them in a trust.
The KMT, which has promised to get rid of its remaining asset — the Central Investment Co — and place the profits in a public trust, has yet to complete the process.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Central Standing Committee member Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) yesterday accused Ma and the party of conducting under-the-table deals in handling the party’s assets and called on concerned officials to present a report on the latest developments to the committee.
“The KMT should handle its assets in an open and transparent manner, and any plans to solve the asset issue must be reviewed and approved by the committee. There should be no under-the-table operations,” he said before the committee meeting at KMT headquarters.
Lee complained that the party has never updated information on the handling of party assets to the committee in the past five years, adding that Ma and the party had failed to live up to their promises of facilitating party reform and addressing the party assets issue.
“If Chairman Ma and the KMT meant to proceed with party reform, they should start by making the process of handling party assets transparent,” he said.
He also called on the party to stop limiting committee members’ right to respond or give advice during the weekly meeting. The party sets a limit on the time and the number of committee members who wish to speak at the two-hour meeting.
KMT spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) said later that the party is preparing for a report on the process of its handling of party assets, and will explain the situation to the committee as soon as possible.
Ma has instructed KMT Vice Chairman Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) to form a task force on KMT assets and discuss the issue in the CSC soon, Yin said.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS