Sunflower movement leader Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) yesterday dropped out of the by-election for the legislative seat representing Miaoli County due to fears that past cases of sexual harassment would overshadow the political changes he and other like-minded people have sought to introduce.
Chen revealed on Tuesday that he was involved in two sexual harassment cases during his sophomore year and senior year in college, and was granted deferred prosecution for the first incident, triggering a polarized public reaction.
Chen said the decision to reveal the two acts of delinquency is a necessary examination of his personal integrity by the public, but due to personal cowardice he had been unable to completely come clean, adding that he had indeed committed similar incidents in the past.
Photo: Tsai Cheng-min, Taipei Times
His withdrawal came after a social media post accused him of groping a woman’s breast on a bus about six to eight years ago.
“I wish to extend my apologies to the women I have harmed in the past,” Chen said, adding that he was sorry that the indictments had been made public and caused more suffering to his victims.
“I know I have lied to society and to my supporters,” Chen said, adding that he was sad that the results of such confessions rendered him unable to clearly state his hopes and ideals for changing Miaoli County.
Despite the polarized reactions, Chen said he was nonetheless moved at the amount of support he had received, particularly from the crowd at a rally in Jhuolan Township (卓蘭) on Wednesday.
Chen said it was sad that the shadows of his past would have loomed over the elections and would potentially overshadow any policies he proposed, prompting him to drop his campaign bid.
However, Chen called on the media not to seek to invalidate all the demands made by student activists by citing these incidents.
Chen said he and the 200 to 300 volunteers recruited over the past months would continue to visit all 10 townships in the county and interview residents, seeking more in-depth understanding of what had happened in the townships in the past.
He said that despite his past actions casting a pall over future endeavors to better the county, he wished to call on his volunteers — all residents of Miaoli County — to continue their efforts and “finish what we started.”
Chen said he hoped that one day he would be able to face his past and become a better person, while offering his sincere apologies to those his actions had harmed.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS