A revelation by Sunflower movement leader Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) that he once groped a female passenger’s breast on a bus has sparked heated debate among netizens, who had mixed views.
In an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) published yesterday, Chen, who is running for legislator in the by-election in Miaoli County in February, was asked to discuss his potential risk of falling victim to “attacks on his personal integrity,” to which he responded by making the revelation, saying: “There are things that I have kept to myself for a long time.”
“One day, during the summer vacation before my senior year in college, I groped the bosom of a female passenger sitting next to me on public transport and was taken to a police station. Sometime later, I had improper physical contact with a female on the dance floor at a night club, for which I underwent mental health consultation at the order of school administrators,” he said.
Photo from Lin Fei-fan’s Facebook page
Some netizens condemned Chen, with one saying that touching a woman’s body without permission — whatever the reason — without her permission is exactly what “subway gropers” do.
“He is just afraid that these incidents will impact his campaign when they are exposed, so he might as well reveal it now,” one said.
National Taiwan Normal University professor Wu Chia-cheng (吳家誠), referring to Chen’s previous act of throwing his shoe at Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) to protest against the county government’s forced demolition of four houses in Dapu Borough (大埔), criticized Chen on Facebook, saying: “He throws his shoe at someone when he is mad and gropes women’s bosoms when he is high. He is dangerous.”
Others expressed support for Chen and said he showed courage by confessing his past wrongdoing.
“I was very shocked when I heard [Chen’s confession],” Defend Miaoli Youth Alliance member Yu Chieh-min (游捷閔) said.
Knowing Chen on a personal level, Yu said he has many shortcomings, but she also commended his courage in admitting what he did.
“It shows that he is not afraid to admit that he was wrong and is willing to improve. I believe he will adopt a more mature attitude toward women. He has not lost my support,” she said.
Using former US president Bill Clinton as an example, Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) said Americans could forgive Clinton because they elected him as they believed him to be capable of handling public matters, not because they saw him as a moral exemplar.
Chen’s fellow Sunflower movement leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said he had known about the incident for a long time. Lin lauded Chen for having the courage to face his own demons, even though he said he did not think Chen’s mistakes could be rectified by his engagement in social issues.
Prosecutors who handled the case three years ago said Chen touched a female passenger’s breast while she was sleeping on a Taipei-bound Hsin Chu Bus in July 2011, adding that the woman awoke and shouted for help, after which the bus driver stopped the vehicle near Chongqing N Road Sec 3 in Taipei and took Chen to a police station.
Chen was given probation, with the complainant’s consent, prosecutors said.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS