Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) held a banquet to entertain senior executives from several Chinese-funded enterprises on behalf of the Taipei City Government, allegedly spending NT$47,590 of public funds, Taipei City Councilor Lin Ying-meng (林穎孟) said.
Ko was seen meeting with the executives on the third floor of the Grand Hyatt Taipei on Feb. 24, the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Ko refused to provide the guest list of the banquet to avoid outside supervision, Lin said.
According to the exclusive report by the Liberty Times, Chinese National Federation of Industries (全國工業總會) secretary-general Tsai Lien-sheng (蔡練生) acted as intermediary to help arrange the banquet.
Ten senior executives from Chinese-funded enterprises were invited to the meeting, including Bank of China (中國銀行) Taipei branch manager Chen Chang-chiang (陳長江) and China Construction Bank Corp (中國建設銀行) Taipei branch deputy manager Chen Chi-ming (沈啟明), the person said.
Other participants were representatives from Bank of Communications Co (交通銀行), Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (中國農業銀行), China Southern Airlines Co (中國南方航空), China Postal Airlines (中國郵政航空), China Eastern Airlines Corp (中國東方航空), Yechun Restaurant (冶春餐廳), Taiwan Mintou Economic Development Co (台灣閩投經濟發展有限公司) and Magic Amah Household (Taiwan) Co (台灣妙管家股份有限公司), the newspaper said.
Ko was accompanied by Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤), Taipei Department of Economic Development Commissioner Lin Chung-chieh (林崇傑) and Yang Ching-hui (楊慶輝), who has participated in the Taipei-Shanghai Forum, it said.
Lin questioned the cost and purpose of the private meeting, to which Ko responded by accusing her of not doing a serious job, the Liberty Times said.
Bank of China and China Construction Bank Corp are state-owned, while Bank of Communications Co is China’s fifth-biggest lender, the paper said.
Yechun Restaurant was founded by Yechun Teahouse based in Yangzhou, China, which was the first restaurant funded exclusively by Chinese funds investing in Taiwan.
Taiwan Mintou Economic Development Co was established by Fujian Investment Group, a state-owned sole proprietorship based in China’s Fujian Province, conducting business in electricity, gas and railroads.
Taiwanese cleaning product brand Magic Amah Household in 2014 merged with Nice Group Co to become an enterprise running only on Chinese funds.
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