Steve Shieh (謝壽夫), chairman of the First Financial Holding Co, yesterday gained the media spotlight after a verbal fight with a pan-blue lawmaker in which he used an English-language expletive.
Lawmakers asked Shieh for an apology, and demanded that the Ministry of Finance reconsider keeping Shieh, 66, as the head of the state-run bank First Financial.
HEATED WORDS
The senior banker -- who spent the past 10 years at Taishin Commercial Bank before becoming chairman of First Financial in August 2003 -- was taking part in a regular question-and-answer session at the legislature's Finance Committee when he told Legislator Alex Fai (
"If you don't like coming here, then just resign," Fai, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), told Shieh.
Standing next to Shieh, Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (
But as Shieh turned away from the microphone, he uttered the four-letter English-language expletive "shit," which was audible throughout the chamber.
Fai immediately stopped his questioning and demanded that Shieh repeat the word.
Committee chairman Liao Pen-yen (
The Legislative Yuan has been the scene of numerous brawls, fistfights and incidents of rival lawmakers hurling objects such as lunch boxes and books at each other.
`SHIT'-STORM
Regarding this storm in the teacup, First Financial executive vice president and spokesman Huang Hsien-chuan (
"He [Shieh] was simply very angry at the false rumors circulating around, thereby he burst out with something that people think was inappropriate," Huang said, referring to speculation that Shieh was intending to enter into merger talks with Taishin Financial.
As for Shieh's position at First Financial, Huang said that Shieh is employed by the government and that he would try his best to do his job.
Whether he would have to leave the post regarding the "shit" incident is not something Shieh can decide, Huang said on behalf of Shieh.
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
Four former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the territory’s largest national security case were released yesterday after more than four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom. Former legislators Claudia Mo (毛孟靜), Jeremy Tam (譚文豪), Kwok Ka-ki (郭家麒) and Gary Fan (范國威) were part of a group of 47 public figures — including some of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy advocates — who were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election. The case fell under a National Security Law imposed on the territory by Beijng, and drew international condemnation and warnings