The Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday ruled in favor of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), suspending the transfer to the state of Central Investment Co (中央投資公司) and Hsinyutai (欣裕台) shares held by the party.
After the announcement, KMT officials claimed victory in their battle against the Cabinet’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, which is headed by Wellington Koo (顧立雄).
The committee concluded that Central Investment and Hsinyutai are KMT-affiliated organizations and shares valued at about NT$15.6 billion (US$488 million) should be transfered to the state since the companies were founded using illegally obtained assets.
Photo: CNA
The committee had a letter of deposition sent to the KMT last month, giving the party 30 days to comply with the assets transfer. The party filed a court motion to block the request before a final verdict was handed down.
“The shares could be put up for open bidding or passed on to management by a third party,” said Hsu Jui-chu (許瑞助), the presiding judge and spokesman for the Taipei High Administrative Court. “However, if the KMT wins the case, then they would have lost money making the transfer. If the KMT were to be compensated for that loss, it would be a large amount to be settled.”
“If the companies were to be sold or transferred to a third party before a final verdict, then it would lead to complex legal problems, and could result in disputes, which would waste public resources. Therefore, the court has ruled to suspend the transfer of the company’s shares to the state,” Hsu said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Yesterday’s decision can be appealed.
In response to the ruling, Koo said it reaffirmed the committee’s conclusion that the KMT’s shares in the two investment firms were acquired using ill-gotten assets.
Quoting the court’s news release, Koo said that if the committee’s conclusion had been overturned, it would likely create a loophole whereby the two companies could divest themselves of their assets, which would defeat the purpose of 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), which is meant to ensure fair competition among political parties, thus improving the nation’s democratic system.
Photo: Huang Hsin-po, Taipei Times
“The KMT should stop benefiting from Central Investment and Hsinyutai. The ruling means that the KMT should neither transfer nor use the shares, effectively freezing them,” Koo said.
As to remarks by KMT Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) that Koo should stand down from his duties as committee chairman over the ruling, Koo said the media should ask Chiu whether the KMT would accept the court’s affirmation that the KMT shares were illegal assets as defined by the law.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS