Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and several of her predecessors in that post yesterday met to discuss the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties 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), saying that most of the party’s controversial assets have already been returned or donated.
Former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said it might be worth appealing to international media over what he said is an attempt by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government to ensure that another political party cannot function.
Hung, Ma, former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) met with former KMT Administration and Management Committee director Chang Che-chen (張哲琛) and former KMT Investment and Business Management Committee chairman Chang Chang-pang (張昌邦) to discuss the new law.
Hung and her predecessors said all of the party’s controversial assets had been returned or donated during their terms as head of the party, KMT Culture and Communications Committee director Chow Chi-wai (周志偉) said.
They also agreed that the KMT was in a rough patch and needs to find ways to weather the storm, Chow said.
The issue is a complex mix of history and politics, but the party must brace for the worst and be prepared to start from scratch so it can offer better services to the public, he said.
The meeting attendees agreed that difficulties must be made known to current and former KMT members and they should be made aware that the party has always looked out for them and allocated funds to ensure their wellbeing as well as the smooth running of the party, he said.
However, the party must learn to balance its budget and its procedures must be clearly planned and transparent to ensure members’ recognition and support, Chu said.
The KMT could launch fundraising events, but the DPP might try to interfere, he said.
Yesterday’s meeting was aimed at boosting the morale of KMT members and determining the party’s stance on the new law, Chow said.
The meeting participants said that the act was controversial and it should be made known to both Taiwanese and the international community.
Hung on Thursday said that according to the act, most of the National Palace Museum’s collection and the gold used to fund the development of Taiwan should be considered party assets.
According to the act, all party assets gained after Aug. 15, 1945 — with the exception of membership fees, political donations, political party subsidies from the government, election campaign donations and income from natural sources and legal transactions — are presumed illegal.
Hung said that Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) decision to move the National Palace Museum’s artifacts and gold from China to Taiwan was not made as Republic of China (ROC) president, but as KMT chairman.
That the act disregards the KMT’s contributions and focuses on what might be considered ill-gotten is wrong, Hung said, adding that the DPP has launched a witch hunt against a legal political party.
If the nation is looking to make a reckoning, the KMT will give the nation and the public the reckoning it wants, Hung said.
“We are going to go through this very carefully” and see whether the ROC owes the KMT or vice versa, she said.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said Hung was blind to the KMT’s inability distinguish the party from the nation and had embezzled national property for its benefit.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang, Hsiao Ting-fang and Yang Yuan-ting
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS