The government should seize a luxury daycare center run by the Chinese Association for Relief and Ensuing Services and turn it into a public kindergarten if the group cannot pay the NT$160 million (US$5.1 million) it owes for occupying state-owned land, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said yesterday.
The association allegedly occupied 19 plots of state-owned land during the White Terror era whose estimated market value today is at least NT$7.7 billion, said Pan Ho-hsun (潘厚勳), the TSU’s legislative candidate for Taipei’s Xinyi-Southern Songshan electoral district, told a news conference at the headquarters of the Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee in Taipei.
The party commended the committee for investigating whether the association is an affiliate of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Photo: CNA
The association was founded by Ku Cheng-kang (谷正綱), a KMT member who was a staunchly anti-communist protege of presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), but Hsu Li-nung (許歷農), a consultant to the New Party, is now its standing director, which is ironic as he is “a retired admiral who sucks up to China,” Pan said.
As the association was founded to provide humanitarian assistance to all Chinese refugees, he would like to ask association chairman Chang Cheng-chung (張正中) if the group plans to assist pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, many of whom have fallen victim to brutal crackdowns, Pan said.
Chang has voiced interest in an urban renewal project to build social housing on behalf of the Taipei Children’s Welfare Center, which is a tenant in one of the association’s buildings, but what right does the center have to participate in such a project, Pan said.
The committee should look into whether Chang is trying to profit illegally through the project and whether KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) — who represents the Xinyi-Southern Songshan electoral district — has engaged in influence peddling in connection with it, he said.
The committee should seize the center and convert it into a public kindergarten if the association cannot pay the compensation it owes the government, so that more children can receive affordable preschool education, Pan said.
When he was Changchun Borough (長春) warden, he found that a part of the mapped boundary of the borough and neighboring Liouyi Borough (六藝) had been pushed in as if avoid some plots of land, Pan said.
Asking at the Xinyi District Office, he learned that the association, “which controlled the plots,” had zoned the adjacent Futai Borough (富台) in such a way so as to concentrate all plots of public land it occupied, he said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard