A former aide to Parris Chang (張旭成) accused the DPP legislator yesterday of having an extra-marital affair with her earlier this year and of sexual harassment -- charges Chang denies.
Still, the allegations are likely to complicate Chang's candidacy as an overseas legislator-at-large in the year-end legislative elections.
PHOTO: CHU YO-PING, TAIPEI TIMES
Betty Wong (
PHOTO: SUNG CHIH-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Wong told the China Times Weekly (時報週刊) of her alleged relationship with Chang. According to the paper's report, published yesterday, Wong said Chang began to court her in early February when he asked her to solicit votes for him during the party's primary elections. On the night of Feb. 15, she was invited to Chang's home, where she "lost consciousness" for about four hours for reasons which she could not explain. When she regained consciousness, around 11pm, she found her "dress and underwear unzipped" but "didn't feel like I'd had sex with him."
Wong says she was "touched by Chang's hardworking character," and later voluntarily dated him and stayed at his home on several occasions, as he had promised her a job after the primary elections in April.
"This, I admit, was a big mistake on my part," Wong said yesterday at a press conference.
But later Chang began to distance himself from her, she said, and broke his promise to secure her a job. Meanwhile, she felt disturbed and insulted by roughly 20 anonymous letters, some of which threatened to expose her affair while others called her names.
Wong also said she received calls from several women who expressed their sympathy, but refused to identify themselves and told her that she was not the first woman to fall victim to Chang's womanizing.
"I started asking for help, but I didn't get any response from Chang or the DPP," Wong said yesterday, requesting that Chang make a public apology and resign from his post.
Chang, however, flatly denied Wong's accusation.
"There has been no such thing. It's out of the question that she could have lived at my house for two weeks. I don't know what she is thinking. Maybe she was expecting something to happen. She imagined all of this," he said yesterday morning at a brief press conference.
Chang did concede that Wong had been introduced to him to work as his part-time assistant.
"Wong is a paranoid woman, who is sometimes inconsistent about what she says," the legislator said.
Echoing Wong's accusations, former DPP Chairman Shih Ming-teh's (
"About ten years ago, Chang once sneaked into my bed in the university hotel when I visited him [at the university at which Chang then taught] in the United States," Arrigo told reporters yesterday, adding that she had no idea how Chang had got the key to her room, and that she had been very upset and rushed out of the room.
Arrigo added that a female executive director of an international organization had also privately informed her of similar misconduct by Chang.
The ruling DPP's central standing committee yesterday designated Lawrence Gao (
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS