The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said that its initial investigation found that the plots of land housing multiple Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) service centers across the nation were illegally acquired during the Martial Law era.
The party resold many plots of land and service centers to party-affiliated businesses in 2008, said the committee, which is responsible for the investigation and return of ill-gotten party assets obtained during the Martial Law era from 1949 to 1987.
During this period, thousands of critics and political dissidents that the then-KMT regime perceived as threats to its one-party rule were suppressed, imprisoned or murdered.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The KMT in 1987 purchased the land on which it built the KMT Nuannuan Service Center from the Keelung City Government, the committee said.
The law states that the land, which was part of an urban development project at the time, should have been sold via public bidding or allocated for public use, it said.
However, the city government sold it to the KMT, which used it for its own ends, and even resold it in 2008 to Kuang-Hwa Investment Holding Co, a KMT-affiliated company, it said.
The KMT Gaoshu Service Center in Pingtung County’s Gaoshu Township (高樹) was built in the 1950s on a piece of township-owned land that the KMT had “occupied,” it said.
In February 1983, the KMT “demanded” that the Gaoshu Township Office sell the land, or give it to the party for free as it “needs” the land, it said.
Although the Pingtung County Government had warned the office that selling the land would be illegal, the office sold it to the KMT below the declared land value, it said.
The KMT in 2008 resold the land and property to Kuang-Hwa Investment, it added.
The land housing the KMT’s service center in Yunlin County’s Dongshi Township (東勢) was also purchased in 1981 after having been “occupied” first, it said.
Although there was no legal basis to support the way the KMT “purchased” the plot, the Executive Yuan in 1983 approved “special projects” that authorized the transaction, it said, adding that “anything could be bought as long as the KMT wanted it.”
The land was resold in 2008 to Yu-Tai Development, another KMT-affiliated firm, it added.
In related news, KMT-affiliated Institute of Revolutionary Practice director Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) recently said that the party had the priority to “legally acquire” party assets during the Martial Law period, considering the party-state system implemented in Taiwan at the time.
It is just difficult for public opinion to find such a thing “emotionally acceptable,” Lo added.
Committee spokesman Sun Pin (孫斌) rebutted his statement, saying that assets that a totalitarian regime acquires from the nation will always be illegal.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS