The Cabinet yesterday called on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to show its sincerity to return party assets improperly acquired during its 50-year reign, including media outlets, land, houses and cinemas.
"In addition to the Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC), China Television (CTV) and three other media outlets, the KMT should make good on its promise to return seven cinemas and 165 parcels of land and houses," Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) told a press conference yesterday afternoon.
In the run-up to the presidential election in 2000 and this year, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
While the KMT claimed that it has returned 121 parcels of land and houses, Chen said that the National Property Bureau has not yet received any. The KMT has also been accused of dilly-dallying in conducting talks with the Cabinet's five-person task force to address the issue.
Chen made the appeal following the KMT's plan to sell its stakes in BCC, CTV, the Central Motion Picture Corp and the Central Daily News to a foreign investor.
Party authorities are hoping to pick up NT$8 billion (US$235 million) by selling shares in the four companies in a block.
Through the party-run Hua-Hsia Investment Holding Co, the KMT owns a 65 percent stake in CTV and a 96.95 percent stake in BCC, a radio station that occupies 25 percent of the AM frequency and 13.96 percent of the FM frequency available to stations.
One of the prospective buyers is Sycamore Ventures, once part of the US-based Citibank Venture Capital, and the highest bidder so far. Citibank Venture Capital is a subsidiary of Citicorp.
The KMT has to close the deal by the end of next year in accordance with the Broadcasting and Television Law (廣電法), which stipulates that political parties are no longer allowed to manage media outlets.
The Government Information Office (GIO), the supervisory body of the media industry, has made it clear that the KMT will be breaking the Broadcasting and Television Law if it let foreign investors own shares of media outlets, directly or indirectly.
Foreign investors are banned from ownership in the media industry, according to the law.
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