The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday echoed Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) proposal to reinstate the Special Investigation Division (SID), saying that the agency should probe what it called the “top 10 questionable cases” allegedly involving Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members.
Before it was abolished in January 2017, the division was an agency under the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office tasked with probing graft by high-ranking officials, including the president and lawmakers.
Han, the KMT’s candidate in the Jan. 11 election, claimed at the first televised presidential candidate policy platform presentation on Wednesday last week that a number of DPP officials are corrupt and that re-establishing the division is necessary to probe their crimes.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇), KMT New Taipei City Councilor Tang Hui-lin (唐慧琳) and KMT legislator-at-large nominee Wu Yi-ting (吳怡玎) yesterday voiced their support for Han’s proposal at a news conference at KMT headquarters in Taipei.
Following Han’s proposal, the KMT has received information about the “top 10 questionable cases” allegedly involving DPP members, said Lu Ching-wei (呂磬煒), editor of the KMT’s online media section.
One case questions whether former Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), who is now secretary-general of the Presidential Office, and other DPP members should be held accountable for the city’s NT$300 billion (US$9.9 billion) of debt, the KMT members said.
Other cases include establishing who was behind Kaohsiung-based Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船) defrauding the navy in a minesweeper project, identifying the intended recipient of NT$3 million in cash that DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) lost aboard a high-speed train in September, discerning who helped spread rumors about the case of self-confessed Chinese spy William Wang Liqiang (王立強) and examining an up to NT$2 trillion offshore windfarm construction program, they said.
Other items include finding out who approved a bank loan for Far Eastern Air Transport (遠東航空), which earlier this month suddenly halted operations; probing alleged use of more than NT$800 billion of Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program funding for pork-barreling; investigating how government-led Taiwania Capital Management Corp (台杉投資) used funds; and identifying the person responsible for ordering Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如) to spread misinformation online that allegedly led to the suicide last year of Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), then-director-general of the Osaka branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Japan, they added.
They also announced a NT$1 million reward for locating Yang.
People are welcome to post video or images on the KMT’s Facebook page that would help identify her whereabouts, Wang said, adding that Yang could claim the reward herself if she comes forward to face justice.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai