Political donations to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have decreased sharply since it lost the presidency in 2016, a report published by the Control Yuan showed.
The KMT last year received NT$33.37 million (US$1.08 million at the current exchange rate) in political donations, about one-third of the amount it received in 2016, the report released on Thursday showed.
The party’s expenses last year totaled NT$75.31 million, of which personnel costs made up NT$56.84 million.
It had a deficit of NT$41.94 million, about the same as in 2016, the report showed.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) last year received about NT$147 million in donations, about the same as the year before, including NT$113 million from individuals, the report said.
The New Power Party (NPP) last year saw a sharp 76 percent increase in donations to NT$11.73 million, from NT$6.44 million in 2016, it said.
The majority of that, or NT$9.88 million, came from individuals.
The NPP’s declared personnel costs last year were zero, while its operating costs totaled NT$5.09 million.
The party last year had a surplus of NT$6.25 million, compared with a deficit of NT$2.02 million in 2016.
The People First Party last year received NT$5.05 million in political donations, including NT$1 million from for-profit entities, the report showed.
Donations last year fell 74 percent from the NT$17.44 million it received in 2016.
Total expenditures last year were NT$2.2 million, the report said.
OVERHAUL NEEDED: The government should improve its agricultural processing capabilities and expand to new markets to limit its reliance on China, an expert said China’s ban on Taiwanese pineapples was “unsurprising,” and Taiwan should have years ago altered its produce export strategies and target customers, experts said. China on Friday abruptly suspended imports of pineapples from Taiwan, saying that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful biological entities” on the fruit. Calling it an “unfriendly” move, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said that 99.79 percent of the pineapples sent to China since last year have met China’s import standards. Chiao Chun (焦鈞), the author of Fruits and Politics — A Recollection of Cross-strait Agricultural Interaction Over the Past Decade (水果政治學:兩岸農業交流十年回顧與展望), said that China’s announcement is clearly targeting
The Council of Agriculture yesterday signed a Taiwan-Australia Agricultural Cooperation Implementation clause to open a new export market for the nation’s pineapple crop. The clause is an addition to existing cooperation measures, it said. China on Friday last week abruptly announced that it would suspend pineapple imports from Taiwan starting on Monday, on grounds that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful organisms” in shipments of the fruit. The public and private sectors have since joined hands to purchase the local fruit to help the nation’s pineapple farmers. Canberra has requested that all pineapples for export to Australia have their crown buds removed,
DECADES OF INFLUENCE: Over the past 20 years, China has made inroads with Aborigines, funding political campaigns and trips, a legislator said Lawmakers have called on the National Security Bureau to investigate claims of pervasive Chinese influence among Aboriginal communities. Legislators pointed to a surge in communist propaganda and Chinese-funded projects over the past few years, which they say are aimed at infiltrating and buying political influence among Aboriginal communities. “China has for decades carried out wide-ranging ‘united front’ tactics and propaganda campaigns targeting Aborigines,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), a member of the Puyuma community in Taitung County. “Now, they are influencing elections for local councilors and village chiefs, offering money for candidates to mount their campaigns, and to
DISSATISFACTION? If the referendums collect more than 700,000 signatures each, they would have gotten the most signatures in the shortest time, the party said The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) two referendum petitions — one on banning the importation of pork with traces of ractopamine and the other on holding referendums on the same day as national elections — had as of Thursday gathered 691,398 and 674,497 signatures respectively, the party said yesterday. If the petitions collect more than 700,000 signatures apiece, they would have garnered the most signatures in the shortest time since the Referendum Act (公民投票法) was amended in 2017, party officials said. The KMT proposed the “anti-ractopamine pork” or “food safety” referendum just days after President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) announcement on Aug. 28 last