Control Yuan member Chou Yang-shan (周陽山) yesterday said via his assistant that he had no intention of resigning, dismissing media reports that he had indicated his intent to quit following an investigation by the Control Yuan that placed the performance of Taiwan’s former representative to Singapore Vanessa Shih (史亞平) under intense scrutiny.
Chou “will serve out his term at the Control Yuan,” Chou’s assistant said by telephone yesterday in response to a report by the Chinese-language United Daily, which said he planned to quit because of the case. Chou was unavailable for a comment.
The newspaper reported that Chou said he would quit at a meeting of the Control Yuan’s Committee on Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs last Wednesday.
It was at that meeting that a majority of Control Yuan members upheld an earlier decision that the results of an investigation led by Chou into Shih’s performance in Singapore should remain classified.
partial disclosure
Control Yuan member Lee Ping-nan (李炳南), who attended the meeting, said Chou made several attempts to push for partial disclosure of the report to counter claims of “abuse of power” on his part in handling the case. However, most Control Yuan members were of the opinion that the sensitive nature of information in the report warranted classification.
report
Chou, in conjunction with Control Yuan member Ma Yi-kung (馬以工), concluded in their report that Shih was responsible for “serious dereliction of duty” in her dealings with the Singaporean government during her term, which ran from January 2009 to late February, while former division chief Chang Shih-jui (張詩瑞) at Taipei’s Representative Office in Singapore committed a “major violation of law” by failing to cooperate with their investigation.
The United Daily News reported on Wednesday last week that the only reason Chou charged Shih with dereliction of duty was the failure of office staff to attend a centennial commemoration of the Hsinhai Revolution last year.
revenge
That led to accusations that Chou was not impartial over the investigations and some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers even accused him of launching the investigation as an act of revenge over a personal slight, after Chou reportedly did not treat him in the way he had expected during a visit to Singapore.
partial disclosure
Asked to verify the authenticity of the content disclosed in the United Daily News report, Lee said that the newspaper only had “part of the full Control Yuan report,” which is 30 to 40 pages in length.
He also said that there were clear discrepancies between the story reported in the newspaper and the content of the Control Yuan report.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS