The Taipei District Court yesterday awarded NT$5.2 million to Winston Wang (王文洋), chairman of the Hung Jen Group (宏仁集團), in compensation for damage to his reputation resulting from allegations of sexual impropriety.
Wang, son of Formosa Plastics Chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), won the civil suit yesterday against a woman who had claimed to have been Wang's mistress and to have had a child by him.
According to the court, the woman, Jo Jo Lin (林爰君) approached Wang in 1996 pretending to be a wealthy businesswoman interested in investing Wang's Hung Jen Group.
Days after they signed some business contracts, Lin made phone calls to the group and claimed Wang had got her pregnant. She then asked Wang to give her financial support or she would expose the affair to the media.
Though he denied the relationship, Wang gave the woman NT$3.2 million in 1998 for fear that bad media publicity would damage the image of his business which was just beginning to take off.
However, Lin still went on TV to speak of her "relationship" with Wang and the baby she claimed to have had by him.
Wang then took the case to court, charging the woman with blackmail and requesting NT$20 million in compensation for damage to his reputation.
The criminal court found Lin guilty of blackmail last December and sentenced her to 17 months jail. Lin was supposed to begin serving her sentence in March but went into hiding instead.
In the civil decision handed down yesterday, the court decided Lin must pay NT$5.2 million in damages for injuries to Wang's character.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2