New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) sparked a fracas when he said he had no idea what assets the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) holds as he registered for the KMT chairman election on Sunday.
However, in April 2000, news outlets reported that Chu, after attending a KMT Central Reform Committee meeting, said that KMT party assets amounted to about NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in market value, including current assets — savings and securities — of NT$10 billion, fixed assets — land and properties — of NT$20 billion and investment net value of NT$70 billion.
Noting media reports from 2000, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said Chu has been “feigning ignorance” while knowing the scope of KMT holdings.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
If Chu knows of a discrepancy between past and present amounts, he would have to investigate how assets had disappeared and thereby “face the quandary of settling accounts with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九),” Chen said.
His feigned ignorance was to avoid this dilemma, Chen said.
“However, what kind of reform is this is?” Chen added.
Chen said Ma had sold KMT party assets cheaply during his tenure as chairman, and the KMT Administration and Management Committee had become Ma’s personal coffer, with the transactions not reported to the KMT Central Standing Committee.
Chu would not dare hold accountable the person who allegedly mishandled the assets, so he is pretending to have amnesia, Chen said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lai Chen-chang (賴振昌) asked whether Chu is “suffering amnesia or lying.”
“Is the 2000 Chu a different person from the 2014 Chu?” he asked.
Chu did not respond to the allegations raised by the legislators.
New Taipei City Government spokesman Lin Chieh-yu (林芥佑) said no further comment would be made on the issue.
Records show that the KMT Central Reform Committee had meetings following the party’s loss in the 2000 presidential election and the party’s Business and Investment Management Committee then reported that the party’s assets had been divided into six categories: bank savings, securities, land and houses, US dollar-denominated bonds, funds for party affairs and long-term investments in party-run enterprises.
The committee’s report said that KMT assets’ total value had increased from the NT$38,516,990,000 that it had registered with the local district in March 1994 to NT$73,492,600,000 in March 2000.
The investment committee said the increase was the result of adjustments made to the net values of the holding companies of party-run enterprises.
Chu said the party assets then amounted to about NT$100 billion at market value.
According to data filed by the KMT with the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of Civil Affairs last year, the party’s current assets had shrunk to NT$2.46 billion, fixed assets to NT$1.3 billion and investment business to NT$23.29 billion, with the total amounting to NT$26.8 billion. In other words, a total of NT$73.2 billion in asset value vaporized within 13 years.
Lai said that insofar as Chu has emphasized the need for the party’s finances to be made transparent, he would have to clarify the flow of the disappeared NT$70 billion and make transparent the past finances.
The Ministry of the Interior made public in July the party’s financial statements for last year, which show KMT assets totaling NT$26.8 billion, with the party’s affairs funding income at about NT$1.55 billion — topping the chart listing all political parties.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
RSS