In an ongoing dispute over a profitable shopping mall, Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) accused the Keelung City Government of selling the “golden goose” and violently evicting the original operator.
The Keelung E-Square Mall (基隆東岸商場) has been a profitable for many years, with commercial rights held by Taiwanese firm NET Fashion Development Co, which also leases out space to retail stores, from which the city government had received an annual rights payment of NT$50.5 million (US$1.61 million), Lin said yesterday.
Lin of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was Keelung mayor from 2014 to 2022, while the current mayor, George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), emerged victorious in the mayoral election in 2022 to take charge of the Keelung City Government.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Lin said that Hsieh violently evicted NET Co from the mall, while handing over the “golden goose” through a secret deal under an opaque process to the new operator, the Breeze Group.
Separately yesterday, Hsieh at a press conference urged Lin to come forward and provide a clear explanation to the public of the decisionmaking process regarding the property during his [Lin’s] mayorship.
Questioning Lin on why the property right was not registered during his term, Hsieh said the city government now has the an obligation to protect its property.
NET, for its part, has filed a lawsuit, citing illegal action by Hsieh and the city government, in carrying out a “nighttime raid” for unannounced eviction in the early hours of Feb. 1, in which city officials, accompanied by 40 police officers, hauled away its belongings and shut down the NET store at the mall, as well as changing the locks to prevent re-entry.
In the past few days, NET has placed an advert in newspapers demanding that Hsieh as city mayor apologize for the “bandit action” on Feb. 1, which its lawyers claim was illegal, abuse of government authority, larceny and causing damage to private property, resulting in the loss of more than NT$10 million for the company.
NET said it obtained the right for the commercial operation of the complex in 2016, in cooperation with Lucky Parking Co (大日開發), which previously operated the complex as a parking lot, and invested NT$300 million to convert and renovate the second to fourth floors at E-Square Mall.
“We did not know at the time, that the previous operator had not signed the property right agreement for the mall’s second to fourth floor space, which led to later issues and disputes,” NET said, adding that it still holds the legal rights to the property and rights to commercial operation.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS