The Ill-gotten Assets Settlement Committee is persecuting the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) by demanding that it turn over property worth a combined NT$1 billion (US$33.2 million) it “legally” inherited from the Japanese government after World War II, KMT Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said yesterday.
Chiu told a news conference in Taipei that while the KMT obtained assets left behind by the then-Taiwan governor’s office after the Japanese colonial era, the assets were legally transferred to compensate the party for losses it sustained during the war.
The transfer was in accordance with the Republic of China Political Tutelage Period Act, which was the law at the time, he said.
Six other incidents of entities receiving Japanese property indicate that the transfer of property to the KMT was not a “special case,” Chiu said.
The parties indemnified were China’s Kainan University, Tsingtao American School, the China Democratic Socialist Party, the Shanghai Federation of Private Schools, a number of Mexican-born Chinese and a ranch run by US-born Chinese, he said.
The committee ruled that the KMT should pay the government NT$1 billion for the properties because the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration needs to prove its self-worth by pleasing its supporters while directing attention away from its poor performance, Chiu said.
Chiu accused the DPP of attempting to destroy the KMT by depriving it of assets so the DPP can “rule forever,” adding that it is already facing financial difficulties because of the committee’s sequestration of some of its assets.
Meanwhile, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) showed excerpts from presentations the committee gave that contained passages that apparently were edited versions taken from files it requested from the party.
The allegedly falsified passages pertained to operations — including the use of funds and election of committee members — at facilities suspected to be KMT affiliates that are being investigated by the committee, including the National Women’s League, Friends of Armed Forces Association and the Free China Relief Association.
Hung said the passages twisted the KMT’s words, or were fabrications.
He also criticized the emphasis the DPP has put on the Cabinet’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Construction Project, saying it suggests that the DPP has an inward-looking mindset which, contributed to Taiwan being barred from a two-day summit on China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
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