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.
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
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS