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Defense minister promises to solve strip club scandal

Minister of National Defense Lee Tien-yu (李天羽) said yesterday that the ministry would get to the bottom of what happened during Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Vice Admiral Shen Po-chi's (申伯之) visit to Honolulu, Hawaii, five years ago after a newspaper on Monday alleged that Shen had taken a military delegation to a strip club.

"As far as I am concerned, the truth may not necessarily be what was reported in the newspaper. The investigation is ongoing and we shall determine what really happened," Lee said during a press conference at the ministry yesterday morning.

His comments were in reference to a story that appeared in Monday's Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper), which quoted retired Navy captain Wang Chih-peng (王志鵬) accusing Shen of bringing a delegation to a local strip club rather than onto the US Navy's USS Santa Fe, a Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine, at the invitation of the US Navy.

The story reported that Shen had brought six naval officers to Honolulu from Dec. 17, 2002, to Dec. 22, 2002.

During the trip, the US Navy invited Shen and his fellow naval officers to board the Santa Fe and participate in a drill.

Shen turned down the offer and instead brought his delegation to a strip club, the report said.

Shen subsequently would only admit to leading the delegation to a "regular nightclub for tourists."

In communique released by the Navy Command Headquarters late on Monday night, Shen said he regretted what he had done and would abide by the decision of the ministry on the matter.

Lee said the ministry could not rely on a single story to decide whether to reprimand a member of its personnel, adding that the investigation would take at least a week.
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