Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) plan to take legislative aides to China’s Xinjiang Province to “survey” Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” policy.
The KMT’s Central Policy Committee this week delivered invitations to the offices of the party’s 35 lawmakers, asking each to register one aide for a seven-day trip to Xinjiang to “survey” the economic integration policy proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The invitations said the trip would be free for all participants, which triggered criticism from DPP lawmakers.
“It is really the KMT’s internal business if it wants to take legislative aides on a trip, but the KMT has claimed that it is going bankrupt after the passage of the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例),” DPP Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said when approached by reporters at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
“The move shows that the KMT still has a lot of money,” Huang said.
DPP Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) said that the KMT is apparently trying to spend as much money as possible before the government investigates and seizes its ill-gotten assets.
“KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said that after deducting debts and retirement pensions for KMT employees, the party would donate all that is left of its assets to charity,” Hsu said. “Now I wonder how much will be left to donate.”
The allowance for each participant is about NT$60,000 (US$1,892), which adds up to more than NT$2.1 million for 35 people.
KMT Central Policy Committee executive director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) denied that the party would pay for the trip.
“The KMT will not spend a cent on the trip, because every political party can apply for external exchange funds from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy,” Tsai said.
“In the past, most parties, including the KMT and the DPP, have spent the money on high-ranking party officials, and since Hung is more concerned about ordinary party employees — especially legislative aides — she decided to spend the money to allow them the opportunity to learn more,” he said.
Tsai said that the DPP has never spent external exchange budget on its ordinary party employees.
DPP Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said that the “One Belt, One Road” is a policy doomed to fail and is not worthy of a survey.
Looking at the proposed itinerary, the trip looks as if it is more for tourism than for business, Tsai Yi-yu said.
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