The application for early retirement of Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) police chief Lee Te-wei (李德威) was approved yesterday, leading to fervid speculation that his move was related to admonition Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) gave to him.
Ko warned Lee, 54, on national television two weeks ago, threatening to fire him if the police department is unable to prevent future occurrence of repeated attacks on Falun Gong practitioners by members of the pro-unification Patriot Association (愛國同心會) near the Taipei 101 building.
In a short statement, Lee denied that there was any connection between his decision and the mayor’s criticism.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
“Even though it comes at a tricky time, my retirement has been a long time coming,” he said.
Lee’s wife, Taipei fire department chief secretary Yang Ping-fen (楊炳芬), 55, also announced her retirement from her position.
Lee’s retirement sparked rampant speculation in local media, with Chinese-language newspaper United Daily News linking it to Lee’s reportedly close relationship with former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
In a statement on Facebook, Hau said he was “extremely reluctant” to see Lee go, adding he had “heavily relied” on Lee in communications between the police department and the Taipei City Council during his time in office.
Hau praised Lee and Yang as “intelligent, capable, loyal and responsible officials.”
The United Daily News also speculated that Yang’s decision was linked to Ko’s public admonition last week of the city’s fire department performance.
“We must respect people’s decisions,” Ko said when questioned about Lee’s resignation.
He said that given retirement has to be applied for well in advance, it was unlikely that Lee’s decision was related to his criticism.
Ko said that he was not worried about the possibility of officials applying for retirement or job transfers following new requirements for officials to be available around the clock via the Line application, adding that it was difficult for officials to transfer.
In an interview with the Liberty Times, the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper, Yang said that her husband had first thought about retiring in September last year, with his desire to retire growing stronger after a controversial police officer death in his district.
She added that she “had not seen him in a long time” because of the heavy weight of the duties he bore as police chief, often not coming home for more than 10 days because of incidents at Xinyi District night clubs on weekend nights.
She said she was unable to comment on whether Lee’s decision was linked to Ko’s criticism, but added that she “could not understand” why Ko would make the comments.
Lee’s daughter Sara Lee (李培毓) in a Facebook statement defended her father from netizens comparing him to a “rotten strawberry,” unable to bear up under pressure from his boss.
She said netizens who made the comments had no understanding of the difficulties that police officers face.
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
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,
RSS