This is why Taiwan’s government doesn’t do anything to make affordable housing available. Look at the real estate they hoard!
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I’ve been saying that for years. Anytime a new building project is proposed, every government official with a voice in the approval process is gifted at least a few units. Each vote of “yes” gets them at least a few million USD richer…
The question is whether or not we can lock them up for corruption…
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We should get try Control Yuan to trace that money in greater detail and get some political science professor to publish it.
Lawmakers are pretty darn rich.
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That’s why they wanna be lawmakers
Clintons came away with a billion in their foundation
They don’t seem to be giving much of that away
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It’s very interesting they share very similar investment patterns most holding part of it in trust, I presume to avoid inheritance taxes. They are probably advised by the same accounting firm(s).
Also the large number of insurance policies, probably some way to limit tax.
What’s more interesting is the background of how they would have gained assets or how long their family has been rich.
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I think that there’s a pretty big difference in status/prestige between POTUS and some Control Yuan member. Maybe comparing a Control Yuan member to say a state senator from Pennsylvania would be more apples to apples?
Taiwanese attitude on corruption is that it is tolerated as long as said politician brought benefit to the people they represent or to the country as a whole. For example, lowered unemployment, crime, economic prosperity for the common people. Corruption is seen as “reward” for doing a good job and is somewhat tolerated. However if they go OTT like Chen Shui Bien (who also ends up making Taiwan look bad) then they bring the full force of the law on them.
But corrupt politicians aren’t isolated to Taiwan and they exist in ALL countries, except maybe some Nordic countries.
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Not really interested in doing a super deep-dive. Just scanned the top line numbers. They took in ~$29m in contributions and grants (though total revenue $65m with $31m from investment gains) and paid out $34m in program services.
Foundation has $318m in total assets - $196m in investments and $84m in property and equipment
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Most of them since their family got into a government/KMT sponsored position.
Some of them have been local landlords for over a hundred and fifty years…The Lin’s, Koos , Liens go way back…Then you got the newer breed like the Changs connected with the KMT. Of course the most successful were the ones who managed to straddle that divide.
Then you have actual full on gangsters although they tend to occupy local government seats.
It is a wonder that Taiwan functions as well as it does.
Above selection are far from the biggest landlords. KMT bigshot Wang Jing Pin owns dozens of houses and there is another legislator with even more.
I think you’re comparing apples and oranges. The Control Yuan is independent from the LFY and is the one producing the report.
In political science that’s called the stationary bandit. The more the economy grows, the more they can embezzle, so they don’t embezzle too much at once.
In Latin America, you have roving bandits. You have to embezzle as much money ASAP before others do.
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Anyway we know why they allow the fraudulent over estimation of property size in Taiwan .
I was going to say Neuro may be confusing public perception with legal authority. Can US state senates impeach anyone in any branch of the federal government? The CY can impeach anyone, and no-one can impeach them except themselves.
LOL, I stand corrected. Never really spent any time trying to figure out the political system here. Always just assumed the control yuan was the legislature (maybe because of prior posts referring to members as lawmakers?)
In that case, yea, the corruption here seems pretty f*cked up
Taiwan has five branches of government. Here is a guide.
Lifayuan - legislature
Executive Yuan - executive branch
Supreme Court - judicial branch
Control Yuan - auditor
Examination Yuan - in charge of civil service examinations
立法院 = Legislative Yuan
The Judicial Yuan is more than just the Supreme Court.