The Ministry of Justice’s Administrative Enforcement Agency yesterday sealed off dozens of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) properties that are to be auctioned off to recover state-ordered compensation, a move the KMT said was politically motivated.
The agency’s Taipei Branch yesterday morning dispatched staff to seal 14 buildings and 21 plots of land in Taipei owned by the KMT, including the party’s Songshan District (松山) office, the KMT-affiliated National Policy Foundation and several dormitories for retired party staff, branch Chief Enforcement Officer Chung Chih-cheng (鍾志正) said.
The sealed properties are to be auctioned after the branch completes all preparatory procedures, Chung said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Yesterday’s move was the latest in a series of seizures carried out by the agency to recover NT$864.88 million (US$28.08 million) in compensation ordered by the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee in June last year for the KMT’s sales of 458 properties appropriated from the Japanese colonial government.
The KMT had submitted several proposals on how it planned to pay the compensation, including with gold bonds issued by the Republic of China government in 1947 that the party claimed are worth nearly NT$38.5 billion, but all were turned down by the committee.
The agency has only successfully auctioned one seized KMT property, a dormitory that was sold for NT$15.26 million.
KMT Administration Committee director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said yesterday’s move was clearly politically motived, as there are less than 100 days before the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections.
“Political parties are important entities in a democratic society, because their existence allows the democratic system to function properly. However, the Democratic Progressive Party is clearly trying to use a state apparatus to eliminate the KMT,” Chiu said.
KMT Taipei chapter director Huang Lu Ching-ju (黃呂錦茹) called the move an “ambush,” saying that party officials did not receive any prior notice for the seizure of the party’s Songshan office.
KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) planned to establish a campaign fan club at the office later this month, Huang said, adding that the timing of the office’s seizure reeked of “malicious election interference.”
Asked about the KMT’s accusations, Chung said the agency is a government body that only acts in accordance with the law.
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