Tycoon Wang Yu-yun (
On April 26, Wang, the former president of Chung Shing Commercial Bank (中興銀行), received a seven-year jail sentence on charges of abusing the bank's funds. He was found guilty of mismanaging bad loans valued at more than NT$80 billion (US$2.4 billion).
NOTICES
Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office spokesman Chung Chung-hsiao (鍾忠孝) told reporters yesterday that twice last month the office had issued a notice to Wang ordering him to report to prosecutors and begin his prison sentence, but Wang did not show up.
Chung said prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Wang on Thursday, adding that if police failed to arrest him or if he did not give himself up in the next few days, prosecutors would place Wang on the wanted list.
Chung said Kaohsiung police have interviewed Wang family members and some of his business associates, adding that Wang was not believed to be in Kaohsiung.
Wang, a senior Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and Kaohsiung mayor from 1973 to 1981, was indicted in 2000 and has been prohibited from leaving the country since 2002.
CHINA
Prosecutors suspect Wang may have used a boat to flee to China, Chung said.
A report yesterday in the Chinese-language United Daily News said that Wang may be hiding in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, as he runs businesses there.
Chung said, however, that prosecutors were not privy to such information.
Financial officers said that Wang had transferred most of his assets and properties to China and other countries before facing prosecutors.
The judicial system has come under fire for allowing convicted criminals -- especially white-collar ones -- to roam freely.
Prosecutors argue it is difficult to supervise suspects and convicted criminals who have not been detained, a situation that is compounded by the fact that it is not difficult to flee to China by boat.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS