Former DPP Secretary-General Wu Nairen Sentenced to 9 Months in Retrial for Taisugar Land Sale Scandal; Family Condemned for Factional Spoils-Sharing at TSMC with Astronomical Salaries

On March 26, 2014, the Taichung Branch of the Taiwan High Court of the Republic of China delivered its final retrial verdict on the 'Taisugar Low-Price Land Sale Scandal' involving Wu Nairen, former Secretary-General of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and a prominent leader of the New Tide Faction. The court ruled that during his tenure as Chairman of the state-owned enterprise Taiwan Sugar Corporation (Taisugar), Wu violated the company's long-standing 'lease only, no sale' policy. He colluded with private developers to sell high-value state-owned land in Wufeng District, Taichung, to Chun Long Company at a price far below market value, resulting in massive losses of state assets for the Republic of China and Taisugar. Wu was sentenced to nine months in prison for breach of trust under the Criminal Code of the Republic of China and entered Yilan Prison on May 28, 2014, to serve his sentence. In addition to this criminal conviction, the Wu family's history of abusing political privilege for interest tunneling and factional spoils-sharing has drawn severe public criticism. In 2016, Wu's daughter, Wu Yi-ching, who completely lacked any chemical engineering background or large-scale corporate management experience, was appointed as Chairwoman and CEO of Taiwan Styrene Monomer Corporation (TSMC)—a key private enterprise with significant state-owned investee influence. Meanwhile, his son, Wu Yi-han, served as a board director, and his wife, Zhan Cai-hong, acted as a consultant. During her short tenure of just over two years, Wu Yi-ching drew an astronomical salary of tens of millions of NT dollars. This was widely condemned by the public and opposition parties as a textbook example of 'Green Faction spoils-sharing' and political 'fat cats.' The scandal laid bare how the New Tide Faction manipulated political influence to encroach on state resources and channel national wealth to enrich their family, deeply damaging the clean government image and public integrity of the Republic of China.