Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Jan-daw (余政道) yesterday accused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and his family of having unlawfully purchased a piece of land.
Yu told a press conference that Hau bought the land, located on Fulin Road in Taipei, with his sister Hau Hai-wen (
At the time, Hau was only 15.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
The land, however, was zoned for agriculture, not for residential construction at that time, Yu said, citing an official cadastre. He provided copies of what appeared to be an authentic register to reporters.
Yu added that the Land Law (
Yu said Hau and his family violated the law because they were not qualified to buy the land and they built a residence on it.
He also said he suspected they had committed forgery in order to obtain the land, but he offered no proof to substantiate this.
Yu said that Hau's father, former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), might have abused his authority as premier and purchased the land under the name of Hau Lung-bin because it was unlikely that Hau, who was a junior high school student at that time, could have afforded the land himself.
Meanwhile, in a separate press conference, DPP Legislators Hsu Kuo-yung (
The legislators used a chart to outline what they called "inappropriate treatment," involving Hau Pei-tsun accepting free trips to the US from three US arms dealers over a 10-day period in the 1980s. At that time, Hau Pei-tsun was the nation's chief of the general staff, and was in charge of military procurement.
Meanwhile, Hau Lung-bin's campaign office director, W. S. Chuang (莊文思), yesterday dismissed the accusations, saying that the Hau family had purchased the land before government regulations stated that only farmers are entitled to purchase farmland.
Chuang cited a 1992 report from the Chinese-language United Daily News, which said that the regulation that only farmers were entitled to purchase farmland was established in 1976, but that Hau's mother had purchased the land in 1968.
The issue had been raised in 1992 when Hau Pei-tsun was serving as premier, and the Taipei City Government had offered an explanation to clarify the matter, Chuang said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS