Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟) yesterday denied that he was among a group of politicians who had dinner with former senior Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團) executive Wei Ying-chun (魏應充) after his release on bail on Wednesday last week.
Wei’s release was upheld on Tuesday, although his bail was raised to NT$300 million (US$9.5 million).
Hsu Chin-huang (徐嶔煌), a member of the Taipei City Government’s Clean Government Commission and the person who publicized the meal on the day Wei was released, removed Chi’s name on his Facebook post after the protest and apologized, saying it was a mistake. However, he added that it did not affect his main point.
Hsu alleged that the former Sanchong (三重) mayor and New Taipei City Mayor [and KMT chairman] Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) former civil affairs bureau director, Lee Chien-lung (李乾龍), Deputy Minister of Finance Chang Fan (張璠) and KMT Legislator Chi Kuo-tung attended a “welcome meal” right after Wei secured his release on bail.
Chi denied attending the dinner and said he would rather starve than join “that kind of meal,” adding that members of the Clean Government Commission should back their accusations with proof, lest their credibility be damaged.
Chi said that what he said in a political show on Tuesday night was that it was “suspected” that Wei had a meal with a few politicians right after his release, but he himself did not meet with Wei.
Chi’s name was later removed from Hsu’s post; nothing else was changed.
In the post, Hsu asked sarcastically whether the KMT is now “trying hard to prove that ‘Taiwan will never recover unless the KMT collapses.’”
“The KMT’s idiocy is bottomless” by having its officials meet up with Wei immediately after his release, Hsu wrote. “Did they meet to negotiate Ting Hsin’s loan, selling the group’s stake [in Taipei Financial Center Corp (台北金融大樓), the owner of Taipei 101] to IOI Properties Group Ghd — a company that has made vast investments in China — or how to revive Ting Hsin’s land in Sanchong?”
Hsu said that Chang Fan is the younger brother of Chang Hang (張珩), President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) confidant and family doctor, who served as the head of Taipei’s health bureau when Ma was mayor, and became chairman of the Taiwan Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation after Ma was elected president.
Chang Fan had also served as director-general of New Taipei City’s Urban and Rural Development Department under Chu, “which is, in short, the department to talk to if you want to undertake land speculation, land rezoning and affordable housing construction,” Hsu wrote.
“The rapid rezoning of Ting Hsin’s land in Sanchong from industrial use to residential use was approved by Chang [Fan] when he was the department director-general,” Hsu said.
As for Lee, “Sanchong’s land developer and former mayor, and one of Chu’s right-hand men,” he is said to own 25 plots of land, totaling about 48,000 ping [158,400m2] in Sanchong, Hsu said.
Lee himself has “admitted to possessing at least 700 ping, which is still considerably vast,” Hsu said.
Hsu alleged that Lee has been embroiled in many controversies, including pork-barrelling funds and having an MRT station built in a place where none had been planned — and profiting from the subsequent surge in land prices in the surrounding area.
“What does he have to do with the Wei family? The answer is: Ting Hsin owns large tracts of land in Sanchong next to the Lee family’s land, which can be changed to ‘commercial’ use,” Hsu said.
“The KMT and Chu can continue playing innocent and treating Taiwanese like fools, and [face another drubbing] in future elections,” he said.
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