A woman upset by the way the DPP has treated her complaints against party Legislator Parris Chang (
According to local media yesterday, Betty Wong (汪鳳英), Chang's former aide, was discovered shortly after swallowing the pills by a magazine reporter assigned to watch her.
Wong was taken to the hospital, where she was listed as being in stable condition.
PHOTO: HSIEH TUNG-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Ho Bih-jen (
In addition, Ho said the party had offered Wong legal assistance, but the woman had consistently refused.
In June, Wong said Chang had recently ended their extra-marital affair. She said Chang was a frequent womanizer and asked the DPP to probe Chang's behavior and discipline him by demanding he step down from his post.
But the DPP last week concluded that it is up to the law to determine whether Chang was guilty of any wrongdoing. The party also said it could not do anything about Wong's claims that Chang had sexually harassed other women, since no other complaints had been filed.
At the time, Wong said that "if Chang doesn't step down from his post, it is I who shall die."
According to the media, Wong has been living with a female reporter for Scoop Weekly magazine (獨家報導). The president of the weekly, Shen Yeh (沈野), said the reporter had been living with Wong to try to prevent her from doing anything rash.
However, the reporter said on TV yesterday that when she left Wong alone briefly, around noon, she swallowed the pills.
"When I came back I found her crying. I asked her if she took any drugs and she said swallowed about 70 sleeping pills," the reporter said. "I suggested that she be sent to the hospital but she refused."
Wong left seven letters to people including Chang, DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (
In the letter to Chang, Wong said she would await him "at the bottom of the inferno," the media reported.
The Green Party's director of international affairs, Linda Arrigo, DPP legislator Chou Ya-shu (
Arrigo alleged that Parris Chang constantly sexually haras-ses women and said that she was also a victim. Chang has sued Wong and Arrigo for libel.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking