Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo Credit: Ko Wen-je/Facebook
TAIPEI MAYOR KO WEN-JE has come under fire in the past week for financial irregularities linked to him or his TPP.
The first controversy involves allegations of corruption regarding real estate in Taipei. This pertains to the Core Pacific City Mall, which was demolished in 2019, as well as the land lease auctions for the T17 and T18 areas in the Beitou Shilin Technology Park
Ko is accused of favoritism to the Core Pacific City Mall’s developers, potentially suggesting corruption, because the mall was allowed to increase its floor area ratio from 392% to 840%. This would have allowed the Core Pacific City Mall to make an extra 40 billion NT, with the mall given more than 1,000 ping in space. DPP city councilors critical of Ko, such as Chien Shu-pei and Hsu Shu-hua, have stated that this led to the mall being granted the largest floor area ratio increase in the history of Taipei.
Likewise, with regards to the Beitou Shilin Technology Park plots T17 and T18, Shin Kong Life Insurance acquired the T17 and T18 lots when the T16, T17, and T18 plots were put up for auction, though Shin Kong lacked an investment plan. This has been accused of political favoritism by Ko, seeing as his vice presidential candidate during his 2024 presidential bid was Cynthia Wu, who belongs to the family that owns the Shin Kong Group. Documentation from meetings regarding the Beitou Shilin Technology Park may have been falsified.
Former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng, who served in Ko’s administration, has now had an exit ban on leaving Taiwan and changing his residence placed on him. Namely, Pong is thought to have potentially been involved in corruption over the Beitou Shilin Technology Park and the Core Pacific City Mall. Prosecutors did not think there was a need to detain Pong, however.
Ko Wen-je (Center). Photo credit: Ko Wen-je/Facebook
Likewise, Ko has come under fire for financial irregularities about campaign donations during his failed presidential bid in the 2024 election cycle. The party has blamed financial irregularities on Tuanmu Cheng, an accountant contracted by the political party, who has otherwise affirmed innocence. The Ko campaign’s former chief financial officer, Lee Wen-tsung, has also apologized for failing to sufficiently double-check campaign expenses.
In particular, Ko’s presidential campaign has come under questioning for 18.17 million NT in expenses to OCT Entertainment Company, Mu Ke Public Relations Marketing Limited, Neo Creative Marketing Production Co. OCT has stated that it was never hired by the Ko campaign, nor did it receive any money from the Ko company. The party claims that Tuanmu arbitrarily split up sums paid to the three companies.
Nevertheless, much controversy has also centered on Mu Ke specifically, which is owned by Lee’s younger sister Lee Wen-chuan. Mu Ke is associated with Ko and claims to have been founded to promote Ko’s political ideals. Since the controversy, however, the company has announced that it will dissolve and liquidate all assets.
Much of the controversy swirls around a concert held by Ko, which the campaign later claimed was not for campaign fundraising but for commercial profit, as a result of which it was not declared as a fundraiser. 770,000 NT in income was generated from the event, which was organized by Mu Ke, even as controversy centered around 8,800 NT tickets for adults to the event. Mu Ke was paid 3,140,802 NT for organizing the event. The TPP has otherwise suggested that its financial issues stem from the large number of small donations it received and challenges processing them all.
Ko has historically benefited from a political reputation of being free of corruption. This has benefited the TPP, in framing the party as beyond the corrupt entrenched politics of the pan-Blue and pan-Green camps. Yet with Ko increasingly seeing corruption scandals, it is to be seen if this impacts him and his party, with some claims that the TPP is fading as a political phenomenon. Ann Kao of the TPP has also now been removed from office as Hsinchu mayor, as a result of corruption charges, with Kao resigning from the TPP. The future of the TPP remains to be seen, then.
The Control Yuan has stated that it will investigate the alleged financial irregularities. Nevertheless, while the TPP and Ko have apologized for irregularities with campaign finances, it is to be seen if the party eventually shifts toward alleging that it is politically targeted by the DPP. If the TPP leans into this narrative, this would not necessarily affect Ko’s popularity among his partisan support base. At the same time, many have questioned in recent weeks whether Ko’s popularity is fading. This remains to be seen.