The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday called on New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), the sole candidate for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairmanship, to launch a probe into President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) financial connections with corporations if he is elected party chairman next month.
“Chu has promised to push for reforms — reforms within the party and reforms of the constitution — if he is elected KMT chairman,” DPP spokesperson Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said.
“He is therefore obliged to launch a probe into Ma’s complex financial affairs to show that he is sincere about pushing reforms,” he said.
Huang said that while the KMT and Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團) had denied allegations by political commentators that the party and Ma had received political donations from the company, the Chinese-language Next Magazine cited a transcript of prosecutors questioning Wei Ying-chiao (魏應交), one of Ting Hsin’s top managers, in a report, saying that Wei had admitted to donating NT$5.25 million (US$166,000) to the KMT in 2010 for its Greater Kaohsiung mayoral campaign.
Huang added that despite the KMT’s denial, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) had acknowledged such a donation and that the KMT’s Kaohsiung headquarters had also said it had given Ting Hsin a receipt for the donation.
Ting Hsin has recently been the target of public criticism and boycott because of a series of food scandals.
Many opposition politicians and political commentators have alleged that the group has been able to survive multiple scandals because it is a major financial sponsor of the KMT and the president.
“If, as Wang and the KMT’s Kaohsiung headquarters said, the money was given to the KMT as a political donation, where is it now?” Huang asked. “On the other hand, if what the KMT and Ting Hsin said are true, does Chu think that Wang is lying?”
“If Ting Hsin did not make the donation, but Wei said so during questioning by prosecutors, he would have been giving false testimony, which is punishable by imprisonment of up to seven years,” he added.
Huang said that if Chu is to lead reforms within the party and bring about clean politics, he will inevitably have to touch on the issue of “money politics” in the party because “it is at the core of clean politics.”
Huang also urged Chu to respond positively to amending the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法), as well as other sunshine bills and legislation dealing with the KMT’s “ill-gotten” party assets, which the party took directly from the Japanese after Japan’s surrender of Taiwan in 1945.
Those former Japanese properties should have been taken over by the government, he said.
NEW AGREEMENT: Malaysia approved imports last year after nearly two years of negotiations and inspections to meet quarantine requirements, officials said Up to 3.6 tonnes of pomeloes from Taiwan cleared Malaysian customs on Friday, in the first shipment of Taiwanese pomeloes to Malaysia. Taiwan-grown pomeloes are popular in domestic and overseas markets for their tender and juicy taste, the Ministry of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency said. The fruit is already exported to Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines, it added. The agency began applying for access to the Malaysian market in 2023, compiling data on climate suitability, pests and diseases, and post-harvest handling, while also engaging in nearly two years of negotiations with Malaysian authorities and submitting supplementary
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One of two tropical depressions that formed offshore this morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. It is expected to move in a northwesterly direction as it continues building momentum, possibly intensifying into Typhoon Mitag this weekend, she added. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is expected to approach southeast of Taiwan on Monday and pass through the Bashi Channel between Tuesday and Wednesday,
About nine Taiwanese are “disappeared,” detained, or otherwise deprived of freedom of movement in China each month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Between Jan. 1 last year and Aug. 31 this year, 188 Taiwanese travelers went missing, were detained and interrogated, or had their personal freedom restricted, with some questioned in airports or hotel lobbies, the council said. In a statement ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the council urged people visiting China for any reason to be highly vigilant and aware of the risks. Of the reported cases, 50 people were “disappeared” after entering China, 19 were detained and 119 had
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