The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee yesterday declared Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC, 中廣) an affiliate of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), ordering it to relinquish 109,627m2 of land to the state and pay NT$7.731 billion (US$249.283 million) in compensation.
The committee said that the finances, business and personnel of the company had been effectively under the control of the KMT until 2016, when it, through party-controlled Hua Hsia Investment Holding Co (華夏投資), sold 96.95 percent of BCC shares under its control at a steep discount to Hao Ting Co (好聽), Yueh Yueh Co (悅悅), Boyinyuan Co (播音員) and Guangbojen Co (廣播人).
The committee said that BCC’s ill-gotten assets could be split into two major categories: land and assets appropriated from now-defunct Taiwan Hoso Kyokai and those purchased with government funding.
Photo: CNA
The committee ordered BCC to transfer ownership of a broadcasting unit and a former broadcasting bureau building in Chiayi County’s Minsyong Township (民雄) and a broadcasting unit on Toad Mountain (蟾蜍山) in New Taipei City’s Jingmei District (景美) — totaling 109,627m2 of land and 699m2 of building space — to the state, per the Act Governing the Handling of Illegal Assets 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).
It also demanded that BCC compensate the government for assets acquired via ill-gotten means that have already been transferred to a third party or requisitioned by the government.
Among such assets is Taipei’s luxury residential complex The Palace (帝寶).
The company should transfer ownership of the properties and pay the government within 30 days of receiving official notice, the committee said.
However, as the radio frequencies that BCC operates on are within the jurisdiction of the National Communications Commission, they were not considered, it added.
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