Sun, Jan 08, 2017 page3

• KMT’s Steve Chan quits, said over assets contract

  ADMINISTRATIVE MESS: Hung Hsiu-chu had said the vice chairman is ‘awfully important’ to her and asked the media not to ‘maliciously drive a wedge between’ them

  • By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
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  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) last night announced his decision to quit the post.

  In a brief statement, he said he decided to leave the post as he has “completed the mission assigned for this phase.”

  Earlier yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) dismissed a media report that Chan would quit over her disavowal of an administrative contract that he secured from Ill-gotten Party Assets Committee Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄), which was said to be fully authorized by Hung, but which she later refused to sign.

  The Chinese-language China Times published an exclusive report yesterday saying that Chan, who is in San Francisco, told its reporter that he felt “discontented and puzzled” when Hung told the media on Sunday last week that “nobody had supported the signing of an administrative contract with the committee except Chan.”

  Chan told the newspaper that he was not alone in the many meetings and negotiations with Koo, as “people from Hung’s circle” were also there.

  “If those around Hung had a different opinion, they should have spoken up during the negotiations, but no, they chose to say something different from what was agreed only afterward,” Chan was quoted as saying.

  Chan was reportedly not pleased about Hung’s disclosure of the internal party discussion about the negotiations, saying the handling of the controversy “was extremely unwise.”

  He said that he suspected someone from the party “deliberately fed the media with what was agreed during the negotiations, for a specific purpose.”

  Hung’s handling of the issue was also heavily criticized by Chan.

  “If the decision not to sign [the administrative contract with the committee] was right, then those who talked [Hung] out of signing it should shoulder the responsibility and consequences it might incur, rather than passing the buck to me,” he was quoted as saying.

  The China Times said Chan would likely quit as the party’s vice chairman, as he said he would “do what [he] should do.”

  In Taipei yesterday, Hung said Chan is “awfully important” to her and dismissed the report, asking the media not to “maliciously drive a wedge” between her and Chan.

  Local media outlets first reported in the middle of last month that the committee and Chan, representing the KMT, had agreed to sign an administrative contract that would allow the handover of the party’s shares in Central Investment Co and its subsidiary Hsinyutai to the state, even though 45 percent of the shares would have to be transferred in the form of a donation.

  The contract also had provisions concerning what would be done with the funds from the disposal of Central Investment Co’s assets.
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