Land records show that the property originally belonged to the Japanese Red Cross Society’s Taiwan branch, which the Republic of China government claimed after World War II. The KMT moved into the property after coming to Taiwan in 1949 and used the structure as its party headquarters free of rent until April 1984, when it starting paying rent of only NT$300 per ping (3.31m2), Shih said. In June 1990, the then-KMT government sold the property to Gao Ming-hui (高銘輝) and two other KMT members without holding competitive bidding, selling it for well below the market value at the time of NT$4.5 billion, the committee said. After martial law was lifted in 1987, “the national treasury became the party treasury” and the property was sold without obstruction, she said. “Can you say that they did not use their authoritarian power to acquire the property?” she said.

Source: Taipei Times April 14, 2018 15:56 UTC