Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday alleged that a China-affiliated business group had funded the construction project of the Straits Exchange Foundation’s (SEF) new building in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直).
DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) told the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee that the building had cost an estimated NT$700 million (US$23.2 million) to build. While the foundation raised NT$300 million on its own, another NT$200 million came from the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland, which is affiliated with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO).
The association’s Web site shows that its honorary chairmen are TAO Director Wang Yi (王毅) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林). ARATS deputy chairmen Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) and Li Bingcai (李炳才) serve as the association’s chief advisors.
The association’s rules state that its members must “embrace unification” and dedicate themselves to pushing cross-strait development and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Chiu quoted SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) as saying that the foundation would reserve one floor of its new building for the association.
SEF Deputy Chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) said the money it raised did not come from the association, but from the foundation’s board members and businesspeople. However, SEF officials admitted that many of the foundation’s board members have business connections in China.
Chiu was joined in his request that the foundation make public the names of its donors by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), but Kao said he must respect the wishes of those who preferred to remain anonymous.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) also said while she thought transparency was important, the wish of individual donors must be respected.
DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) said he suspected those who did not want their identities revealed might be afraid of Chinese suppression or might have donated the money on behalf of China.
DPP Legislator Chien Chao-tong (簡肇棟) asked whether it was legal for the foundation to raise funds without obtaining permission from the Ministry of the Interior or local governments. The Charity Donations Act (公益勸募條例) stipulates that such funds be placed under the oversight of the supervisory agency.
Later yesterday, the foundation issued a statement saying the act should not apply to the construction project because the money raised for the project was not used for charitable purposes.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry