Minister of Education Wu Maw-kuen (吳茂昆) yesterday said he has resigned from his post, becoming the nation’s shortest-serving education minister.
Since he took office on April 19, he has been accused of illegally obtaining NT$176 million (US$5.87 million) in research bonuses from National Dong Hwa University while serving as its president, stealing a patented technology owned by the university, illegally working as an adviser at three institutions in China and illegally attending a summit held by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in China’s Hangzhou while he served as National Science Council minister.
Wu had previously explained that the research bonuses had been given to him due to an administrative error and denied all the other allegations except for attending the summit in Hangzhou.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
In a lengthy statement issued yesterday afternoon, Wu said he had verbally resigned over the weekend and that the Executive Yuan has already approved it.
Since he was appointed the education minister, certain media outlets have repeatedly tried to slander him, while certain legislators of the opposition parties attempted however they could to humiliate him and portray him as a person of few admirable qualities, he said in the statement.
“I have never faced more slander and insults in my life than I did in the past one-and-a-half months. What really worries me is the trouble these false accusations have caused my colleagues at the ministry and the harm they have caused the Cabinet, as well as the work delays they have led to,” he said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Consequently, he decided to resign to Premier William Lai (賴清德), “following the highest moral standard,” he said, adding that Lai has already approved his request.
“I hope my departure will put an end to all irrational attempts to interfere with the ministry’s efforts to promote education policies and allow my colleagues to move forward with their work,” he said.
Many thought he was appointed as minister to prevent National Taiwan University’s (NTU) elected candidate, Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), from being appointed the school’s president, but that is not true, he said.
Academic integrity is the foundation of universities and university presidents must be examined based on a high moral standard, he said, adding that the ministry has handled the university’s case based on facts instead of personal preference.
With regard to the HKUST summit on high tech that he was accused of illegally attending in October 2005, Wu said that he had applied for permission in advance, as required by the regulations, but the Executive Yuan “neither approved nor disapproved.”
Wu said that he decided to attend the summit because it was held on a Saturday and Sunday, and he wished to help promote Taiwanese technology by meeting foreign officials responsible for policies on technological development.
Then-HKUST president Paul Chu (朱經武) — who was his teacher — had personally invited him to attend, he said.
Following his resignation, the National Federation of Teachers’ Unions and 30 other parents’ associations and education groups issued a joint statement, praising the Executive Yuan for “heeding people’s voices and taking responsibility.”
Many of the groups had participated in a demonstration outside the Executive Yuan on May 17 to demand that Wu step down.
Wu was announced as the new minister on April 16 after former minister Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) resigned over what he said were political manipulations and slander directed at the ministry amid accusations that he was deliberately stalling the appointment of Kuan due to the latter’s political leaning.
Wu’s swift resignation after only taking over the helm of the education ministry for 41 days went to show that he had been appointed for the sole purpose of blocking Kuan’s appointment as NTU president, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said yesterday.
Wu’s statement of resignation failed to clarify the allegations that the opposition party has made against him, Hung said, urging President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to allow Kuan to assume the NTU presidency as soon as possible so as to free education from political influence.
Additional reporting by Stacy Hsu
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
US-CHINA SUMMIT: MOFA welcomed US reassurance of no change in its Taiwan policy; Trump said he did not comment when Xi talked of opposing independence US President Donald Trump yesterday said he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Trump’s comments on Taiwan came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing US-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan. “I will make a determination,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS