Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday removed Atomic Energy Council minister Hsieh Shou-shing (謝曉星) from his post, effective immediately, citing accusations of harassment and abuse of office, which have “impugned the government’s credibility and fostered an unfriendly and sexist working environment.”
Su said Hsieh’s actions contravene the government’s policy to foster gender equality.
Hsieh’s dismissal came after the Chinese-language Mirror Media last year reported that Hsieh allegedly sexually harassed his female subordinates.
Photo: CNA
Su at the time instructed Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lee Meng-yen (李孟諺) to put together a task force to investigate the issue.
Following a three-month investigation, the task force on Monday said its findings have substantiated the magazine’s allegations that Hsieh’s actions contravened articles 7 and 12 of the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法).
Hsieh has demonstrated bias in the appointment of his secretaries and other government employees, as well as when approving leave requests, the task force said.
He was fixated on qualifiers such as height, age, looks, blood type, zodiac signs, marital status and family wealth that did not relate to an employee’s professional capabilities, it said.
Hsieh has been known to stare at his female subordinates and have bodily contact with them, the task force said, adding that he also talked about their figures, makeup and clothing.
The task force said that such actions are unbecoming of the head of a ministerial-level agency.
Hsieh tendered his resignation upon learning of the task force’s findings, but he had already been dismissed.
The Executive Yuan apologized to those affected on the government’s behalf, and said it would forward the case to the Control Yuan for further investigation.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s