The Yu Chang Biologics Co case does not fit any of the legally defined cases for the “revolving door clause” in the Civil Servants Work Act (公務員服務法), former civil service minister Chu Wu-hsien (朱武獻) said on Wednesday.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) claims the Yu Chang case represents a violation of the revolving door clause in the Civil Servants Work Act because Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) became chairperson of Yu Chang in September 2007, but only stepped down as deputy premier in May.
The Ministry of Civil Service has repeatedly said the matter should be defined by the Executive Yuan, while the latter says it is “not at liberty” to define the law as the ministry is in charge of implementing the act.
Chu said the ministry provided a general explanation of the revolving door clause in 1996, adding that there were four main legal situations in which an act could be recognized as violating the clause. Violation of the revolving door clause is a criminal offense and the definition of that offense is very rigid, as it must meet four pre-requisites, Chu said.
Civil servants are in violation of the act if, within three years of leaving their post, they take up a profit-seeking role at any company that they had dealings with within five years prior to leaving the post, Chu said, adding that “organizations related to the job” refer to profit-seeking organizations over which the government has authority.
The role at the profit-seeking organization must be one that involves direct supervision — for example, the civil servant worked at the governmental department that has authority over the profit-seeking organization within five years of joining the profit-seeking organization.
It applies only if the position is that of “chairperson, supervisor, manager, stockholder in charge of executing company business or consultant” of the profit-seeking organization.
The Biotech and New Pharmaceutical Development Statute (生技新藥產業發展條例) clearly states that the governmental organization in charge of the biotech sector is the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Chu said, and in the five years prior to leaving her position as deputy premier Tsai never had a job at the ministry.
In no way did Tsai chairing Yu Chang Biologics Co violate any legal statute or act, Chu said.
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching