Ren Mei-ling (任美玲), wife of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), promised to provide subsidies to student renters in their property on Taipei’s Yangmingshan (陽明山), Hou’s campaign staff said yesterday.
Hou has been accused of exploiting renters during his election campaign over his family’s Kaisuan Condominium (凱旋苑) near Chinese Culture University.
At a news conference in Taipei, Hou’s campaign team presented a letter from Ren in which she vowed to convert the 103-room building, which she inherited from her father, into social housing for young people.
Photo: CNA
“My family has legal ownership of the property, and we legally refurbished it into a condominium,” she wrote in the letter.
Everything related to the property is legal and the family has paid tax on the rental income, she said.
As the property has been managed by Shin-Kong Life Real Estate Service Co (新壽大廈管理維護公司) since 2019, the family has not been involved in increasing rents, she said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
When the management agreement ends in June 2026, the family would convert the property into social housing units for young people, she said.
Although the family cannot change the rents under the management contract, they would seek to subsidize a portion of students’ rents with aid of NT$6,000 per month for single rooms and NT$7,000 for doubles, she said.
Students and advocates on Monday protested outside the building, saying that Hou’s family was profiting off of students, with rents rising annually by at least 5 percent.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokeswoman Michelle Lin (林楚茵) said that Kaisuan Condominium is registered under Yoyu Co Ltd (又昱實業有限公司), which is headed by Hou’s daughter Hou Yu-fan (侯昱帆).
The company in 2011 signed a 15-year contract with Chinese Culture University to provide housing for students, and in that time, Hou You-yi’s family had made more than NT$300 million (US$9.72 million) from the property, Lin said.
She also said that the company subdivided the building into 99 separate addresses to avoid paying property taxes.
“Since obtaining the property’s operating license in 1997, Hou’s family has evaded paying tax for 26 years, for about NT$4 million in total,” she said.
“Many students cannot afford the condominium’s high rent, with its yearly 5 percent increases, so they want to terminate their rental agreements, but Yoyu would not let them,” DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.
Hou You-yi’s campaign deputy director Hsieh Cheng-ta (謝政達) filed a judicial complaint against DPP members, alleging that they contravened election laws by erecting billboards with photographs of Hou You-yi that said he earned NT$20 million per year from student renters.
DPP spokesman Chang Chih-hao (張志豪) said Hou You-yi should explain how he can support housing justice while also profiting from student renters.
“Hou cannot evade these questions. People are seeking clarification on his family’s properties, which runs contrary to his voiced support for housing justice,” Chang said.
Chang said that yearly rent increases of 5 percent with compound interest would add up to NT$20 million over the past few years, adding that Hou You-yi should explain if that amount is correct.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
‘SLICING METHOD’: In the event of a blockade, the China Coast Guard would intercept Taiwanese ships while its navy would seek to deter foreign intervention China’s military drills around Taiwan this week signaled potential strategies to cut the nation off from energy supplies and foreign military assistance, a US think tank report said. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted what it called “Justice Mission 2025” exercises from Monday to Tuesday in five maritime zones and airspace around Taiwan, calling them a warning to “Taiwanese independence” forces. In a report released on Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said the exercises effectively simulated blocking shipping routes to major port cities, including Kaohsiung, Keelung and Hualien. Taiwan would be highly vulnerable under such a blockade, because it
UNDER WAY: The contract for advanced sensor systems would be fulfilled in Florida, and is expected to be completed by June 2031, the Pentagon said Lockheed Martin has been given a contract involving foreign military sales to Taiwan to meet what Washington calls “an urgent operational need” of Taiwan’s air force, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. The contract has a ceiling value of US$328.5 million, with US$157.3 million in foreign military sales funds obligated at the time of award, the Pentagon said in a statement. “This contract provides for the procurement and delivery of 55 Infrared Search and Track Legion Enhanced Sensor Pods, processors, pod containers and processor containers required to meet the urgent operational need of the Taiwan air force,” it said. The contract’s work would be
RSS