The People First Party (PFP) caucus yesterday threw its support behind a draft bill aimed at dealing with ill-gotten party assets, urging the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to truthfully face its mistakes and allow justice for the people.
The PFP made the remarks in a press release issued after lawmakers voted 71-26 in favor of putting the legislation at the top of the agenda of an extra legislative session, which began yesterday and is set to run through July 29.
“The PFP supports the legislature’s attitude in dealing with the KMT’s ill-gotten assets. [The KMT] should face its mistakes and give Taiwanese due justice,” the PFP said.
However, the PFP urged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to bear in mind the creation of a more benign political environment when dealing with political parties’ ill-gotten assets, rather than being motivated by vengeance.
Describing the KMT’s ill-gotten assets as a “posthumous child of past mistakes,” the PFP said that the properties the KMT received or improperly occupied after the Japanese colonial period ended should be returned to the people.
“Over the past few years, PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) has repeatedly reiterated his stance that [the KMT’s] ill-gotten assets should be dealt with and given back to the people,” the PFP said.
“However, not only did the KMT’s leadership miss the best time to handle the issue, they also arbitrarily allowed the assets to create unfair political competition,” it added.
Handling the KMT’s assets now is merely an attempt to “repeat a failed course” and finish the KMT’s “long overdue homework,” the PFP said, urging lawmakers to pass the draft bill as soon as possible.
The PFP also called for wisdom, prudence and transparency in dealing with the KMT’s assets, as not all of them originated with the Japanese government, as some came from investments, and many bona fide third parties were involved in the party’s sales of properties in the past.
“If the DPP lets vindictiveness go to its head or handles the issue in a manner similar to plundering, it will only create more impropriety and another wave of social instability,” the PFP said.
The PFP added that both the DPP and KMT should face the past truthfully, work toward the future with good, will and rise above their personal interests and political calculations.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods