Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-01-06

After months of negotiations, the National Women’s League has finally reached an agreement with the interior ministry over its future. Last week, the National Women’s League signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the interior ministry and the Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee.

The league promised to donate 90% of its assets to public coffers, an amount of around NT$34.3 billion (US$1.1 billion). The league also agreed that its four major foundations will be subject to public scrutiny. They will also hold elections for board members, with one third of their board appointed by the government. The contract brings to a close months of negotiations to make the organization more transparent and accountable.

The league was founded in 1950 by Soong May-ling, the wife of the former Republic of China president Chiang Kai-shek, a year after Chiang’s KMT troops lost the Chinese civil war to the Communists. The interior ministry has long insisted that the league must bring to light the flow of “donations” to the military over the past few decades. The “donations aimed at boosting military morale” were in fact a surcharge imposed on imports from 1955 to 1989.    [FULL  STORY]