President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) bank deposits have decreased by about NT$900,000 (US$28,125) over the past year, according to a special report on the assets of public figures released on Friday.
The Control Yuan reported that the president had NT$246,571 in cash, up from NT$134,246 last May, but that his bank deposits had decreased from NT$66.88 million to NT$65.98 million.
Ma also declared owning marketable securities worth NT$242,286 in the latest report, which also showed the first couple’s newly declared assets of NT$4.91 million in insurance policies and dividends.
The Control Yuan publication on property or assets declared by public functionaries, recently renamed the “Clean Politics Report,” had only been published a few times a year in the past, but will now be issued once a month.
Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said Ma’s decreased bank deposits were mainly used to finance living expenses and to make charitable donations.
There were few significant changes in Vice President Vincent Siew’s (蕭萬長) assets, with his securities increasing to NT$3.78 million from NT$2.89 million. Siew’s wife Susan Chu (朱俶賢) also declared NT$9.4 million in life insurance policies.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) declared ownership of two plots of land and one house. He declared bank deposits of NT$18.7 million, NT$5.42 million less than in November 2008 when he was a lawmaker. Wu’s wife declared NT$10.99 million in life insurance policies.
Former vice premier Eric Chu (朱立倫), who stepped down as vice premier earlier this month in prepare his bid to run in the Sinbei City special municipality election later this year, declared ownership of NT$25.82 million in bank deposits and NT$60.09 million in securities.
Chu has also put 10 plots of land, two buildings and securities worth NT$2.85 million into a trust, according to the latest Control Yuan report.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International