In a surprise move on Friday, Presidential Office chief of security Huo Li-ching (霍立青) was relieved of his job, allegedly due to indiscretions, inappropriate social activities and rumored membership of a major triad gang.
Huo, 55, had held the post of “chief aide-de-camp to the president” (侍衛長) since Aug. 1.
The Presidential Office said that his dismissal was related to “issues of internal management.”
Huo is to be replaced by Lieutenant General Pan Chin-lung (潘進隆), a counselor for the Ministry of National Defense, effective yesterday, the Presidential Office said.
Pan, 56, a former Marine Corps commander, had formerly served as deputy chief of staff at the Navy Command Headquarters.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) quoted military sources in its report as saying that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) made the decision himself, as Huo was suspected of leaking details of a private conversation of Ma’s with first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青).
The conversations allegedly revolved around Chow’s worries of bad public perception and her personal safety in the aftermath of the elections, and her advising Ma to resign as chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The report also alleged Huo attended banquets in the company of business tycoons, shady figures and retired military officials who made visits to China.
The Chinese-language United Evening News yesterday further alleged in a report that Huo’s removal from the post was due to his involvement in the “Green Gang” (青幫), a major triad with extensive networks throughout the Chinese world.
The “Green Gang” originated in China’s Shanghai in the early 20th century, and became a major criminal organization under Shanghai underworld boss Du Yuesheng’s (杜月笙) leadership.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the