The nation's representative to Singapore said he had decided to tender his resignation because he didn't see eye to eye with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government's campaign of "de-sinification" and the removal of artifacts related to dictator Chiang Ka-shek's (蔣介石) regime.
Hu Wei-jen (
He told the Chinese-language daily that he had said he had decided to end his 35-year career as a public servant.
Hu assumed his current post in June 2005. He is scheduled to return to Taiwan tomorrow.
He also told the Central News Agency (CNA) yesterday that he would travel to the US in September to serve as a visiting scholar at Harvard University.
"Since we are all clearly Chinese, I do not approve of some of the policies [adopted by the DPP administration,]" he was quoted as saying in the CNA report.
Hu said that Singapore and Taiwan treat the early history of the Republic of China (ROC) very differently.
In the two years he served as representative in Singapore, he said, he visited "Evening Garden", a museum dedicated to Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) more than a dozen times.
Hu said he visited the garden repeatedly not just because the picture of his own father was featured among the exhibits, but for the richness and educational content in the museum exhibits pertaining to the history of the ROC.
Hu is the son of Army general Hu Zongnan (
"I have learned much that I didn't know about the ROC's history in Singapore," Hu Wei-jen told the CNA. "Even Singapore accepts and honors this history ... What right does Taiwan have to pull down the bronze [statue] of Chiang?"
Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Yeh Fei-bi (
Yeh said Hu Wei-jen, while serving as the nation's representative to Germany and Singapore, has a history of putting personal views above his duties as a diplomat as well as putting personal interests above that of the nation.
The ministry will "begin to review the matter," Yeh said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union spokeswoman Chou Mei-li (周美里) and DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), who is a member of the legislature's Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee, were critical of Hu Wei-jen when asked by reporters for comments.
"As a government official -- particularly as Taiwan's representative stationed abroad -- he ought to defend the government's policy. If he cannot agree with the government's policy, he should go," Chou said.
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) and People First Party Legislator Daniel Hwang (黃義交), said they admired Hu for his courage in expressing his views.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
‘LONE WOLF’: The suspect was difficult to locate, as he did not use a cellphone, did not contact family and often lived in abandoned sites or parks, police said Taipei police on Thursday morning arrested a man accused of numerous burglaries and at least 14 incidents of sexual assault spanning more than 20 years, in what might be the nation’s most notorious crime spree in recent years. Sixty-year-old Tu Ming-lang (涂明朗) — who was yesterday placed in judicial detention, after a judge determined he was a flight risk without a fixed address — faces multiple charges of sexual assault and burglary, police said. A task force comprised of various law enforcement agencies arrested Tu as part of an investigation into an April 28 burglary in Daan District (大安), in which a
ONLINE REPORT: Confirmed cases filling out the online contact tracing report can check a box to indicate that a close contact had received a booster dose, an official said The guidelines for diagnosing COVID-19 have been revised to include people aged 65 or older who test positive with a rapid test that is confirmed by a healthcare worker, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 65,794 new local infections. The CECC had first announced the change on Monday, before publishing the new guidelines. Starting today, people aged 65 or older, regardless of whether they are undergoing home quarantine, home isolation or self-disease prevention, can be classified as a confirmed COVID-19 case by a healthcare professional, based on a positive result from an antigen rapid test, said
Taiwan is on alert for monkeypox, a rare viral disease that has caused 87 infections in 11 countries over the past three weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Saturday. The WHO on Friday convened an emergency session to discuss a sudden outbreak of monkeypox in North America and Europe. Since the beginning of this month, 87 confirmed cases and 28 possible cases have been identified in 11 countries. The countries with the highest case counts are England with 29 cases, and Portugal and Spain with 23 each. Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease occurring primarily in the tropical rainforest areas
Three human skeletons and artifacts believed to be about 400 years old were unearthed by construction workers at National Ilan University in Yilan County, the university said yesterday. The discoveries were made on May 10 as workers were digging to expand the College of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science’s facilities, the university said in a statement. The skeletons were found at three sites, along with glass beads, copper bells and rings, discs and a fish-shaped metal knot, it said. The find is likely connected to the “Old Baili Village” (擺厘舊社, Bai Li Jiu She), an as-yet-undiscovered Kavalan settlement that has been mentioned in