A hearing is to be held on April 27 to examine whether the National Women’s League was controlled by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and whether its assets were obtained illicitly.
The leading members of the league were “almost identical” to the members of the KMT’s Women’s Affairs Committee when the league was established on April 17, 1950, by Soong Mayling (宋美齡), wife of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), an Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee report said.
The league has NT$38.1 billion (US$1.26 billion) in assets and owns a number of foundations, which have considerable property holdings, and has received nearly NT$100 billion from the Military Benefit Tax, but has not disclosed its financial status or how the proceeds of the tax were used, the assets committee said.
The league’s executive management has consisted of the wives of KMT officials — resulting in it being dubbed the “club of officials’ wives” — including former director Soong; former deputy director Tan Hsiang (譚祥), wife of former vice president Chen Cheng (陳誠); and former executive secretary Pi Yi-shu (皮以書), a former KMT legislator and wife of former KMT Central Executive Committee member Ku Cheng-ting (谷正鼎), it added.
More than 10 other executive members of the league were also members of the KMT’s Women’s Affairs Committee, suggesting close ties between the organization and the party, the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said.
Three of the league’s executive secretaries have had close ties to the KMT: Pi; Women’s Affairs Committee member Wang Ya-chuan (王亞權), who assumed the role in 1974; and Cecilia Koo Yen (辜嚴倬雲), who has been in the position since 1990, it added.
Directors of the league’s local chapters at the city and county level were the wives of city mayors, county commissioners or council speakers, with the exception of the Taipei chapter, the assets committee said, adding that the league’s offices at the township level were headed by the wives of township mayors or other influential locals.
Directors were appointed by selection, not election, it added.
The report cited the memoirs of former league official Cheng Yu-li (鄭玉麗), which say that Soong appointed the wife of former provincial government secretary-general Pu Hsueh-feng (浦薛鳳) as the director of the Taipei chapter because then-Taipei mayor Wu San-lien (吳三連) was not a member of the KMT.
Key positions in the organization were given to KMT officials’ wives without exception, because “it was easier to raise funds and organize league events,” the memoirs say.
The report also quoted the memoirs of former Ministry of the Interior Department of Social Affairs director Liu Hsiu-ju (劉脩如), which say that Soong insisted on having “full discretion” to appoint league members, resulting in the organization being founded as a “social movement institution” regulated by the Executive Yuan instead of a public foundation independent of government control.
League publications show that its member registration form required individuals to record their “KMT party member number” and “date of party membership approval,” suggesting a close relationship with the party, the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said.
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