The National Women’s League received NT$3.58 million (US$119,325) in funding over the decade to 2016 for an annual dragon boat race held in Washington, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said.
The league each year applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Overseas Community Affairs Council for funding for the event, despite having tens of billions of New Taiwan dollars in assets, Lai said.
Ministry records of funding granted to overseas representative offices show that US$37,200 was given to the league’s branch office in Washington from 2006 to 2015, Lai said.
Over the same period, the council granted the league NT$2.48 million, he said, adding that NT$272,160 was awarded in 2009 under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
In 2016, last year and this year, the council gave the league NT$254,800, NT$232,480 and NT$236,240 respectively to fund the event.
The league operates 19 overseas offices, and branches in other countries similarly used the annual Dragon Boat Festival as an opportunity to request funds from the ministry and the council, Lai said, citing a branch in Australia that has received about NT$70,000 for the annual event to date.
Lai accused the league of seeking funding from the council and ministry, even though it was already “as rich as a country” (富可敵國) with its NT$38 billion in assets from the so-called Military Benefit Tax, which used to be its main source of income.
Asking for more funding showed that the league is “greedy” and has no scruples about “taking advantage of the country,” he said.
The government should seek to reclaim the funds given to the league under Ma’s administration, especially as the league’s financial records have allegedly been destroyed by former league chairwoman Cecilia Koo (辜嚴倬雲) and her daughter Koo Huai-ju (辜懷如), he said.
Lai also criticized Cecilia Koo for remaining in the US as the league is being investigated, saying she cannot escape her responsibility.
The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee should speed up its investigations into the league and any associated foundations that it finds, he said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by