What happened in the Tainan Evergreen Hotel last Friday between a West Point cadet and a Taiwanese college student did not constitute rape, Army Command Headquarters said in a statement released late on Thursday night.
"It is our finding that the West Point cadet did not force the woman to do anything she did not want to do, nor did he rape her. The woman did not accuse the cadet of doing any such thing," the release said. "As a result, we are of the opinion that the West Point cadet did nothing illegal. What happened between the pair was a tryst."
The statement was issued in response to a report in the Chinese-language United Daily News on Wednesday.
The report said a student surnamed Chuang from the Republic of China Military Academy last Friday escorted a West Point exchange student to a Tainan nightclub and invited a 24-year-old woman, who had been his elementary school classmate, to join them.
Later that night, the US cadet and the woman checked in to the Evergreen Hotel where they had sex, the report said. It added that the woman later complained to the academy that she felt "uncomfortable" about what had happened at the hotel.
The Army press release said that the academy's principal, Major General Chen Liang-pei (
After the hearing, the Army ruled that the West Point cadet had no case to answer. However, the punishments already meted out to members of the academy stand.
Chuang was placed on probation on Wednesday for "damaging the academy's reputation" by taking the cadet to "improper locations." On Thursday, the academy also announced punishments for several of its officials.
Meanwhile, columnist Johnny Neihu reports in today's issue of the Taipei Times that the United Daily News reporter who broke the story, Lee Kuang-yi (
A source at the United Daily News confirmed their acquaintance, which was not disclosed in Wednesday's report.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
SECURITY RISK: A university student sent a general alarm signal to THSRC’s control center on April 5, causing four operating trains to temporarily halt services The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday pledged to submit a report on ways to harden the communication security of railway systems after a university student hacked into Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) radio communications system and disrupted operations of four high-speed rail trains last month. Investigation by the police and prosecutors found that the university student and radio enthusiast, surnamed Lin (林), first used a software-defined radio (SDR) filter to analyze THSRC signals, downloaded the data to a computer, cracked the parameters and then programmed the codes into his radio devices. Lin then sent a general alarm signal to
RSS