Taiwan's Supreme Administrative Court has dismissed an appeal by the China Youth Corps, confirming that it is an affiliate organization of the Kuomintang and that NT$5.6 billion in assets will remain frozen — a significant blow to the KMT and its related groups.

• In 2018 the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee determined that the China Youth Corps was an affiliate organization of the KMT and froze all of its assets, including cash, investments and real estate.
• The China Youth Corps lost at the first instance and appealed; the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed that appeal today, finalising the case with no further avenue for reversal.
• The court held that although the China Youth Corps was nominally placed under the Ministry of National Defense when it was established, it was in practice a body through which the KMT carried out its youth work, with its personnel, operations and finances all under KMT control.
• The China Youth Corps argued that its personnel and finances had been independent since 1989 and that it is a public-interest incorporated association, but the court found that the ownership of the property had not been clarified at the time it ceased to be under KMT control, and that it had not paid commensurate consideration for it.

Outlook: Any use of the China Youth Corps' assets still requires authorisation from the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, and the organisation may subsequently face proceedings to transfer the property to state ownership.