The Ministry of Foreign Affairs last night admitted that its representative office in the UK had issued legal documents and a passport to Yeh Hsiu-chen (葉秀貞) , the wife of the fugitive murder suspect Andrew Wang (汪傳浦) in March, which had later became the approach to allow Yeh authorizing person to sell her real estate in Taiwan in May.
This was the second time that the Taipei Representative Office in the UK has issued legal documentation to a family member of Wang.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (
"Yeh applied for a new passport on March 16, saying she had lost her passport. Our representative office in the UK issued Yeh a new passport the next day," said Mark Chen.
The minister said that when the new chief of the consular affairs section of the UK representative office took his post on July 20, he found documentation of Yeh's application, and reported the matter to the ministry.
"We also set up a task force to cope with the case. However, two of Yeh's real estate sales had already been completed," Chen said. "We were able to block four other deals." Wang had appeared with his son and a lawyer at the London office on Feb. 5 last year, and he was able to obtain an authentication document, which the government claimed Wang used to try to unfreeze money bewing held in Swiss banks. According to the Bureau of Consular Affairs, in May of last year the government prepared a list of Wang's family members, and sent it to the UK representative office to prevent it from making the same mistake. "We have no idea why the representative office in the UK ignored our list," said Chien Kang-tan (
Chien also confirmed that the same senior consular affairs official in the UK office who issued the documents to Wang last year was responsible for issuing the passport to Yeh. the official has been suspended and will return to Taiwan immediately, officials said.
Wang, an arms dealer suspected of being deeply involved in the corruption-tainted sale of French Lafayette-class frigates to Taiwan in the 1990s, is wanted in connection with the death of Navy Captain Yin Ching-feng (
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique