Two universities yesterday said they had canceled former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Ho Chih-hui’s (何智輝) lectures as well as his accreditation as a lecturer, since Ho has been on the run from the law amid allegations of his role in a bribery scandal involving members of the judiciary.
Ho had been scheduled to lecture at National United University (NUU) and Yu Da University (YDU), both in Miaoli County. NUU announced it had canceled Ho’s classes on the transformation of local governance and political and economic developments in the Taiwan Strait, scheduled for next semester.
YDU said it had canceled Ho’s class on political and economic development in China.
Both schools said Ho’s accreditations as a lecturer were also canceled.
NUU students left messages on the school’s Web site ridiculing Ho and his classes.
“Let us take the class in China,” one post said, reflecting investigators’ concerns Ho could attempt to flee to China.
“If the lecturer skips his class, do we get two free credits?” another asked.
Students also questioned how Ho, who apparently jumped from the window of his house and escaped before investigators could arrest him, could teach students how to behave in school.
Students said it was ridiculous for the school to hire a lecturer who had received a heavy sentence for corruption.
NUU said Ho, who has a master’s degree and had served as Miaoli County commissioner, as well as a legislator, was approved by the school’s Center for General Education to be a lecturer.
YDU said it had hired Ho because of his familiarity with law, as well as political and economic practice in China.
Taiwan High Court Judges Chen Jung-ho (陳榮和), Lee Chun-ti (李春地) and Tsai Kuang-chih (蔡光治) and Banciao prosecutor Chiu Mao-jung (邱茂榮) were detained on July 14 on suspicion of corruption when handling four charges against Ho.
The four are suspected of taking or facilitating bribes offered by Ho in return for overturning a lower court’s guilty verdict in a corruption case stemming from his time as a legislator. Sentenced in 2006 to 19 years in prison for receiving kickbacks during the development phase of the Tongluo expansion of Hsinchu Science Park in Miaoli County, Ho saw his sentence overturned by the Taiwan High Court in May.

The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of

Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading

‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to