The China Youth Corps yesterday denied an alleged connection with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), saying at a hearing that the allegation was based on prejudice by the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee.
The hearing was the second by the committee aimed at establishing whether the organization was controlled by the KMT or spun off from the party through questionable sales or transfers — conditions that could prompt the committee to recognize it as an organization founded with ill-gotten party assets.
The committee on Tuesday last week released a report suggesting that the corps has close links to the KMT, as the party had control over the organization’s personnel, finances and management, with former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) directing it for 21 years before being succeeded by other KMT heavyweights.
Photo: CNA
The organization denied being affiliated with the KMT, saying it was a government agency before becoming an independent nonprofit foundation.
The corps was founded in 1955 as a government agency under the Ministry of National Defense, registered with the Ministry of the Interior as a “social movement organization” in 1970 and registered as an independent nonprofit organization in 1989, although KMT members were among its leaders, it said.
The committee has deliberately ignored organizational principles promulgated by the Executive Yuan in 1952 that were the legal foundation of the corps, and has instead cited the minutes of a 1952 KMT meeting in which a decision to create the organization was made, China Youth Corps lawyer Liu Chang-ping (劉昌坪) said.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“The committee has a predetermined position on this case, and its report listed only evidence unfavorable to the corps, suggesting its preconception,” Liu said.
The committee also hampered the organization’s efforts to prepare a defense, as the corps did not receive the report until Wednesday last week and did not finish reviewing more than 500 pages of appendices and evidence until Monday, he said, adding that the hearing should be invalid, as the organization was not given the legally required time to prepare.
Committee member Lien Li-jen (連立堅) said nearly 50 of the organization’s employees have been allowed to combine their years of work at the corps with time of government service to qualify for a public servant pension, a privilege awarded only to KMT employees.
Of all non-governmental organizations, the corps’ employees were the only ones given such a privilege, suggesting an unusual link with the KMT, Lien said.
The purpose of the organization is to assist the government, so its employees were considered de facto public servants, Liu said.
Corps research and development committee deputy director Cheng Fei-wen (鄭斐文) said no funds have been diverted to the KMT or any individual, adding that the foundation has no involvement in politics and should be excluded as an organization connected to ill-gotten party assets.
KMT Administration and Management Committee deputy director Lee Fu-hsuan (李福軒) said there is no evidence in the report indicating that the party had control over the corps, let alone a questionable spin-off.
The hearing was concluded without a final decision, but the assets committee is to determine whether further hearings are necessary.
‘HONORED’: The DPP’s Lin Fei-fan said friends working in the foreign media, the diplomatic corps and at think tanks congratulated him for making the sanctions list The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday slammed China for sanctioning Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and six other Taiwanese officials for being “diehard separatists,” saying its attempt to intimidate Taiwanese would backfire. China has no authority to dictate the actions of Taiwanese, because Taiwan is a democratic nation that upholds the rule of law, and would never yield to intimidation and threats from an authoritarian regime, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news conference in Taipei. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency earlier yesterday reported that the Taiwan Work Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee has imposed
THAI ASSISTANCE: The representative office in Thailand worked with local authorities to help trafficking victims return home, while one in the group has been charged Eight Taiwanese who were lured to Cambodia with lucrative job offers only to be forced to work illegally were brought home on Sunday night in a joint effort between Taiwanese and Thai authorities, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said. Nine people — six men and three women aged 23 to 42 — boarded China Airlines Flight CI-836 from Bangkok, with assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 9:55pm and were taken to the Aviation Police Bureau for questioning before entering home isolation in accordance with Taiwan’s COVID-19 regulations. The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday
ORDNANCE: Under a five-year plan, the Chungshan Institute would make about 200 Hsiung Feng II and III/IIIE, and Hsiung Sheng missiles, an official said The Ministry of National Defense plans to counter the Chinese navy by producing more than 1,000 anti-ship missiles over the next five years, a defense official familiar with the matter said yesterday. The comments came after China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy began a series of military drills in a simulated naval blockade of Taiwan proper following a visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Although China has in the past few years rapidly produced many warships and added them to its navy, these large vessels are more suited for warfare on the open sea than in the narrow
The organizers of WorldPride 2025 have canceled the Kaohsiung event because its licensing group, InterPride, demanded that it remove “Taiwan” from the event’s name, they said in a statement yesterday. Kaohsiung was to host WorldPride Taiwan 2025 after being granted the right by the global LGBTQ advocacy group. However, the WorldPride 2025 Taiwan Preparation Committee said that InterPride recently gave “abrupt notice” asking it to change the name of the event and use “Kaohsiung” instead of “Taiwan,” even though it applied for the event using “Taiwan” in its name. The name was initially chosen for its significance to the Taiwanese LGBTQ community, as
RSS