The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday denied a petition filed by the China Youth Corps contesting the Executive Yuan’s recognition of the group as an affiliate of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The Executive Yuan’s Ill-gotten Assets Settlement Committee in 2018 froze N$5.6 billion (US$170.64 million) in assets under the organization.
The ruling can still be appealed.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Committee officials said the ruling set a legal precedent for future cases, such as restoring state assets and funds owned by the National Women’s League and the Chinese Association for Relief and Ensuing Service, as the corps denied that it was a KMT affiliate organization.
The Taipei High Administrative Court said that multiple KMT Central Reform Committee resolutions between 1951 and 1952, and a nationwide statement on March 29, 1952, announcing the establishment of the corps, with then-director-general of the Ministry of National Defense’s Political Warfare Bureau Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) tapped to oversee the preparations for the corps establishment, demonstrated ties with the KMT.
The resolution passed by the KMT Central Reform Committee said that the organization, then known as the China Youth Anti-Communist National Salvation Corps, was a government organization and would be led by the KMT, the administrative court said.
The court added that beginning with the first appointments of the corps’ Affairs Consultant Committee members in 1978, all committees included the head of the Executive Yuan’s Youth Development Administration or the party’s Youth Affairs Committee head.
The court cited statements made by Lee Chung-kuei (李鍾桂), corps president from 1987 to 2005, who said he was appointed by Chiang, then-KMT chairman, as proof that the KMT had control over the corps.
The court said that in the latter stages of the corps’ history, the then-KMT government included funding for the organization in its budget.
The court said facilities hosting corps recreational events were obtained at lower than the market price or without compensation, while its headquarters had been built using government funds.
Even if the argument that the corps had severed ties with the KMT in 1999 were credible, its finances and property ownership had not been sorted out, the court said.
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