An opposition lawmaker yesterday accused the KMT of a property laundering operation, selling a parcel of land in Taipei where the KMT-controlled Broadcasting Corpora-tion of China (BCC, 中國廣播公司) is located.
The land, which is on the corner of Jenai Road and Chienkuo South Road, and measures 5,600 pings [18,480 square meters], was sold by the BCC board of directors to the KMT-run Central Investment Holding Company (中央投資公司), for NT$8.8 billion in December 1998.
Central Investment has, in turn, struck a deal to sell the land for NT$9 billion to the Hung Sheng Company (宏盛建設公司), a construction firm under the Hung Tai Group (宏泰集團), also known for its close relationship with the KMT.
The decision to sell the land was made by the KMT-controlled Huahsia Investment Holding Company (華夏投資公司), which holds 97 percent of BCC's shares.
DPP legislator Lin Chung-mo (林重謨) said he suspected the deal would benefit the Hung Tai Group. "The BCC should not have sold land worth NT$11.5 billion at a low price of NT$8.8 billion," Lin said.
Showing documents, which Lin claimed to be from unidentified BCC workers, he said BCC had hired a number of real estate firms to assess the value of the land. This was done in August and September 1998, and values ranging from NT$10.48 billion to NT$13 billion were estimated.
An assessment made by the BCC's affiliated business department valued the land at NT$11.5 billion, the documents showed.
According to Lin, the land was originally public property, taken over by the KMT government in the 1950s, after the ROC government relocated to Taiwan.
Headquarters for the KMT's Central Broadcasting Business Management Department (中央廣播事業管理處), which developed into the present day BCC, were built on the land.
Lin said requisitioning public land in this way by the KMT was common practice.
Lin said the KMT had ordered Huahsia Investment to sell the land before BCC lists on the stock market, and while the KMT is still in power.
If the KMT loses the election and control of government it could also lose land parcels and properties such as the BCC site, Lin said.
Since the presidential election campaign is underway it may also be an attempt to solicit big business support by doing favors, Lin added.
BCC officials dismissed Lin's information as inaccurate. Li Tzung-kuei (李宗桂), the manager of BCC's Public Relations Department, said the company had completed all "legal procedures" required to obtain ownership of the land decades ago.
Li also said the land-value assessment presented by Lin was wrong. "There wasn't any assessment as high as NT$13 billion, though we did see one as low as NT$9 billion." Li added. "It is common sense that in any sale, we may not be able to get the price we desire."
Officials at the Central Investment and Hung Sheng Companies were not available for comment.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
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