The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee yesterday announced the improper sale of a state-owned property in Taipei by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that was previously overlooked due to a decades-old clerical error.
The Taipei Police Hostel on Nanyang Street and the land it stands on were sold by the KMT during the Martial Law era, despite rightfully belonging to the public, the commission said in its latest report.
The KMT had confiscated the Japanese colonial-era building near Taipei Railway Station to use as its provincial party headquarters. It was one of 85 government buildings in the first batch of properties appropriated by the party after World War II.
In 1956, the headquarters moved with the provincial government to Jhongsing New Village (中興新村) in Nantou County and the KMT sold the Nanyang Street property in 1961, the committee said.
The building is currently being leased by Watson’s, little changed from its original appearance.
Committee Vice Chairman Sun Pin (孫斌) said in an interview that due to a clerical error, the hostel was not included in a previous NT$860 million (US$30.1 million) fine handed to the KMT for its misappropriation of state-owned property.
When added to the list of properties to be transferred to the KMT, the property was labeled as No. 3, while the actual parcel of land appropriated by the party was No. 3-3, he said.
Since No. 3 in subsequent records is listed as being owned by the Taipei City Government, the Control Yuan and other past investigators assumed it was never allocated to the KMT and had long since been returned to the state, unaware that the party held No. 3-3, he added.
The issue was discovered thanks to a committee investigator who came across a record of the sale while reading through related records, Sun said.
As the KMT had the means to sell the property, the committee figured there must have been some sort of error, he said, adding that investigators then combed through the histories of all surrounding properties before discovering the registration for No. 3-3.
The hostel actually spans both plots of land: No. 3 and No. 3-3, on which the KMT built additions before selling it, Sun said.
As entities wishing to rent space in the building must obtain permission from the city government, the incident constitutes a rare case in which a city government continued to collect rent even after a property was sold by the KMT, he added.
While the KMT might have at the time had the legal standing to use state-owned assets, the properties should have been returned to the state after the adoption of the Constitution in 1947, Sun said.
However, the party not only did not return them, but continued to use or sell the properties, even registering the land on which they sat, he added.
As there are bound to be more cases that have slipped through the cracks, Sun said that the committee would continue to investigate and pursue legal action.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
RSS