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.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS