《TAIPEI TIMES》 Corps can apply to access frozen funds

GREEN LIGHT: The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee would do its best to keep the China Youth Corps’ legal businesses running, the committee spokeswoman said

By Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

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The Cabinet’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee yesterday gave the China Youth Corps the green light to regularly apply for access to its NT$5.61 billion （US$183.2 million） in assets, despite their being frozen pending an investigation, to sustain the operations of its businesses.

Representatives from the corps and committee yesterday met for three-and-a-half hours in Taipei — one day after the corps was designated a Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） affiliate due to the party’s apparent control in the past over the corps’ finances, operations and personnel — to decide how to handle the organization’s affiliated businesses.

According to the committee, the corps has built a colossal business empire, with 15 youth activity centers, 13 sports centers and 62 cram schools nationwide, which last year earned NT$680 million, NT$880 million and NT$1.09 billion respectively.

“Considering the rights of the benevolent third parties, the committee will do its best to maintain the operations of the corps’ businesses as long as they are deemed to be legal establishments, whether they are the corps’ learning, fitness or youth activity centers,” committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang （施錦芳） told reporters after the negotiations.

To protect the rights of employees and customers, several agreements were reached during the meeting, including a stipulation that the organization must deliver a breakdown of funds needed to operate for this month by Monday and for next month by Wednesday, Shih said.

Starting in October, the corps would be expected to submit a similar proposal to the committee each quarter, Shih said.

As for short-term camping events that have already been planned, Shih said the committee has permitted the corps to make necessary allocations for the events first and to submit records to the committee for reference at the end of this month.

“We will make sure that these camping events are not affected [by the corps’ designation as a KMT affiliate],” she added.

Despite the agreements reached, corps secretariat director Cheng Fei-wen （鄭斐文） said he was not satisfied with the meeting’s results.

The corps plans to file a case with the Taipei High Administrative Court on Monday at the earliest to request that the court revoke the corps’ designation of being a KMT affiliate, Cheng said.

“The committee’s unconstitutional designation is expected to gravely undermine our rights and cause consumer disputes worth millions of New Taiwan dollars,” Cheng said, adding that he only participated in the negotiations to “maintain social stability.”

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES