An initial plan by the Legislative Yuan to hold cross-party negotiations today on a proposed amendment that would exclude the China Youth Corps (CYC) from being classified as an affiliated organization of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been canceled.
The CYC was established by former president Chang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) in 1952 to organize military training for high-school and college students.
KMT caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), who was to oversee the negotiations, yesterday said that lawmakers have a schedule conflict, so negotiations would be held at another time.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
However, sources said that the cancelation was due to strong opposition from Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌).
If the KMT had insisted on holding the negotiations, TPP legislators would not attend, the sources said.
At the center of the case were amendments to the Act Governing the Settlement of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) proposed by KMT Legislator Yu Hao (游灝) that were sent directly to a second reading on Dec. 2.
The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee (IGPAC) previously identified the CYC and the National Women’s League (NWL) as KMT-affiliated organizations.
The committee in 2019 said that since its establishment, the CYC had made about NT$600 million (US$19.06 million at the current exchange rate) from selling property.
The IGPAC was founded in 2016 to help achieve transitional justice.
The CYC owns 61 properties and more than NT$1.635 billion in cash that were reportedly improperly obtained and must be returned to the state, and the NWL reportedly has about NT$38.7 billion in assets that are also ill-gotten.
Both cases are in litigation at the Administration Court.
Yu’s proposed amendments would add a clause to the definition of affiliated organizations, excluding those that were once under state authority.
In addition, the original definition says that an affiliated organization’s personnel, finances or operations are substantially controlled by a political party, while the amended definition changes “or” to “and,” requiring the political party to maintain substantial control over all three aspects for the organization to be considered affiliated.
Yu said that administrative watchdogs have overstepped their authority, subjecting many public welfare organizations to excessive scrutiny.
The goal of the amendment is to allow such organizations to operate without political interference, he said.
People recognize that the IGPAC is being improperly used to target the KMT, he added.
Meanwhile, the CYC said it was a government organization at first, carrying out government tasks with government funding, adding that when it became a private organization, its revenue started to come from public events and donations as well as government contracts.
It said its assets have nothing to do with a particular party, but the IGPAC has taken a biased stance despite objective evidence it presented.
The IGPAC has spoken out against the bill being sent directly to a second reading, saying that the Taipei High Administrative Court ruled the CYC was a KMT-affiliated organization on Aug. 1 last year.
The Democratic Progressive Party caucus accused Yu of advocating the proposed changes as part of an attempt to protect KMT assets.
An official familiar with the legal regulations said that according to current law, as long as a political party substantially controls or once controlled an organization’s personnel, finances or operations, and later transferred control without proper compensation, the IGPAC can classify it as an affiliated organization.
However, the proposed amendment would require a political party to control all three aspects of an organization for it to be considered affiliated, which would make it much harder to reclaim ill-gotten party assets for the state, the official said.
dditional reporting by Liu Wan-lin
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