Lawmakers have questioned what they said was unreasonably low rents paid by the China Youth Corps for state-owned land and youth activity centers, calling for the properties’ retrieval once their leases expire.
The corps has been renting 12 youth activity centers nationwide and the Kuan Yun Youth Hostel in Hualien from government agencies and state-run institutions, an investigation by the Executive Yuan’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee has found.
The landlords range from the Ministry of Finance’s National Property Administration (NPA), the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Water Resources Agency and the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau, to the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, state-run Taiwan Water Corp and National Taiwan University.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Most noteworthy is a 6,683m2 plot of land in Hualien County’s Sioulin Township (秀林) leased to the corps by the NPA for NT$163,656 (US$5,424) per year, or NT$6.7 per ping (3.3m2) per month. The land houses the Tienhsiang Youth Activity Center, which is essentially a hostel.
The NPA has also leased 120,599m2 of space at the Kenting Youth Activity Center in Pingtung County, which was built with a subsidy of more than NT$100 million from the Ministry of Education, for an annual rent of NT$6.6 million, or about NT$17.9 per ping per month, the committee has found.
Other properties include a 4,300m2 plot of land that houses the Kuan Yun Youth Hostel, which costs the corps NT$150,350 per year, or NT$6.7 per ping per month; Chiayi County’s Alishan Youth Activity Center, where the rent for a 8,163m2 space is NT$489,780 per year, or NT$16.5 per ping per month; and Nantou’s Sun Moon Lake Youth Activity Center, which sits on a 83,140m2 plot of land that costs NT$8.72 million per year, or NT$28.9 per ping per month.
The committee is trying to ascertain whether the corps, founded by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government in 1952 for anti-communist purposes, should be considered a party affiliate.
“In the early days, the China Youth Corps was granted the privilege of using national resources for free under the pretext of organizing youth activities. It managed to rent state-owned land at low prices afterward, thanks to the lingering influence of the KMT from the party-state period,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said.
The rent paid by the corps for the Tienhsiang Youth Activity Center is particularly preposterous, given that it is at the Taroko National Park and charges NT$3,300 to NT$4,800 per room per night, Lai said.
“With 65 rooms in total, the corps can earn its yearly rent in one night,” Lai said.
New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said it is unthinkable that the corps can rent a place like the Sun Moon Lake Youth Activity Center for NT$28.9 per ping per month, when other properties in the area cost NT$2,000 per ping.
Hsu said the government should stop granting special favors to the corps and immediately re-evaluate its leases with the organization.
The NPA said the properties are leased according to Article 28 of the National Property Act (國有財產法) and that the annual rents were calculated by multiplying the registered land values by 0.05.
It said it has already canceled a 40 percent discount given to the corps, adding that it will consider whether to renew the leases when they expire.
Asset committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) said the committee has launched a probe into properties and youth activity centers listed under the corps’ name, after a second public hearing was held late last month to determine the relationship between the corps and the KMT.
Shih said they will look into not only state-owned land rented by the corps, but also how it has managed to obtain and sell all of its properties, and look for any irregularities.
She added that a third public hearing would be held next year.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS