President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday approved the resignation of Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠), amid an ongoing investigation into Wong’s role in an insider trading scandal involving biotech company OBI Pharma Inc (台灣浩鼎).
Wong offered his resignation on March 29 when traveling in the US, but Ma did not accept it at the time and demanded instead that Wong return to Taiwan to respond to the allegations.
Allegations of improper conduct began after Wong endorsed a new OBI Pharma cancer drug, despite discouraging clinical trial results in February, and it emerged shortly afterward that his daughter is a major shareholder in the company.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
It also emerged that Wong, on behalf of his daughter, sold 10,000 of the firm’s shares before the trial results were publicly released.
Explaining his behavior to the Legislative Yuan last month, Wong said he decided not to resign in order to uphold Academia Sinica’s reputation.
However, Ma decided to approve Wong’s resignation — also to uphold the institute’s reputation — after considering public opinion, according to a statement issued by the Presidential Office yesterday.
“Wong’s decision to stay on in the post to uphold Taiwan’s reputation and prevent turmoil in [Academia Sinica’s] administration was a superfluous consideration,” the statement said.
With prosecutors probing the case, the public thinks Wong should resign over his involvement in the scandal, and an informal agreement has been reached between president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) and legislators across party lines that Wong should resign and cooperate with the prosecutors’ investigation, the statement said.
Although Ma did not accept Wong’s resignation at first, Wong has been in “standby status awaiting resignation approval” since he submitted his resignation, the statement added.
Ma has decided to accept a controversial three-person list of candidates to replace Wang submitted by the institute’s selection committee last month, and has asked Academia Sinica to arrange interviews with the candidates before he steps down on Friday next week, according to a Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) report yesterday.
After the interviews, Ma would discuss his pick with Tsai, and the appointment of Academia Sinica’s next president would be made if they agree on the candidate, the report said.
However, if Tsai disagrees with Ma, the appointment would be left to her after she assumes office, the report said.
Typically, the candidate winning the most votes from members of the selection committee is appointed the institution’s president. According to details on the candidates leaked to the media last month, University of California Los Angeles department of chemistry and biochemistry director James Liao (廖俊智) is leading the race.
According to the list, Liao is followed by Academia Sinica institute of atomic and molecular sciences director Chou Mei-yin (周美吟) and then by City University of Hong Kong president Kuo Way (郭位). However, Kuo has withdrawn from the selection process.
Regarding Ma’s last-minute approval of Wong’s resignation, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Yang Chia-liang (楊家俍) said the party respects Ma’s authority over the appointment of Academia Sinica’s president, but Ma has delayed the issue until nine days before his term expires.
“The DPP last month already asked Ma to deal with the issue as early as possible, and he owes the public an explanation for the delay. Ma is also urged to reconsider making a hasty decision of appointing the next Academia Sinica president in such a short time,” Yang said.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS