The Executive Yuan’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee on Friday fined the Democratic Action Party (民主行動黨) NT$1 million (US$33,743) — its first administrative fine — for failing to declare its assets in an allotted time frame, citing the committee’s investigation into six allegedly defunct political parties.
Official notices were served to Democratic Action Party leaders Wang Ming-lung (王明龍), Liao Che-mao (廖哲茂) and Chen Wen-hsiung (陳文雄) demanding that the party declare its assets.
However, both Wang and Liao said that they had left the party and had no knowledge of its activities, with Wang stating that he left three decades ago and did not even know the location of its headquarters.
Despite their claims, Wang and Liao remain the registered leaders of the party and have been fined for the party’s breach of the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例), the committee said in a report.
The committee’s investigation into the Chinese New Socialist Party (中國新社會黨), the Chinese Jhongcing Party (中國中青黨), the Chinese Democratic Youth Party (中國民主青年黨), the Chinese Jhonghe Party (中國中和黨) and the Youth China Party (青年中國黨) found that the parties’ leaders were dead, with no replacements having been elected.
There was no household registry for Chen Chien-fu (陳健夫), leader of the Chinese New Socialist Party, which was founded in 1947, the report said.
Chen Chien-fu’s last contact with the government was a letter addressed to the Ministry of the Interior in 1991 declaring the disbandment of the party, the report said.
The disbandment was unofficial and the party continues to this day, with only NT$500 in total assets, it added.
The registered leaders of the Chinese Jhongcing Party, Hsu Chen-feng (許鎮烽) and Yan Nan-chang (顏南昌), passed away, leaving the party leaderless and without assets, the report said.
Hung Ping-lu (洪炳爐), leader of the Chinese Democratic Youth Party, which was established in 1952, passed away, as did the leaders of the Chinese Youth Party (中國青年黨), Chen Han-chen (陳翰珍) and Hsiung Kai-chun (熊愷均), the report said.
The Chinese Youth Party had NT$4,481 in party funds, it added.
The ministry has retained a letter that Chinese Jhonghe Party leader Cheng Hsiang-lin (鄭祥麟), who has also since passed away, sent in 1994 to complain that the party had not been invited to that year’s Double Ten National Day celebrations, it said.
None of the parties have provided the ministry with an asset declaration or applied for a tax identification number, it said.
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