The Executive Yuan yesterday approved Li Meng-yen’s (李孟諺) resignation as minister of transportation and communications following revelations of a 10-year extramarital affair.
Li tendered his verbal resignation to President William Lai (賴清德) and Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday afternoon. He then announced his decision to resign in a written statement.
“I am deeply sorry for my personal behavior in the past, which has troubled my wife and my family, and left a poor public perception of public officials. As such, I have tendered my verbal resignation to President William Lai and Premier Cho Jung-tai this afternoon. I hope that the public will not lose confidence in the transportation ministry and the Cabinet because of what I did in the past,” Li said in the statement.
Photo: CNA
Executive Yuan spokesman Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said that Cho thanked Li for his dedication to his duties when he was Executive Yuan secretary-general and as transportation minister.
“As the transportation minister, Li was in charge of resuming railway and highway services, and reviving tourism after Hualien County suffered serious infrastructure damage following the magnitude 7.2 [on the Richter scale] earthquake on April 3,” Chen said. “He also dealt with the road damage caused by Typhoon Gaemi after it made landfall in Taiwan on July 24. His performance as a government official should be applauded.”
“The premier respected Li’s personal decision to resign and affirmed his attitude of taking full responsibility for his personal actions,” Chen said.
Li assumed the post on May 20 during Lai’s inauguration — making him the nation’s shortest-serving transportation minister.
A post on the online bulletin board system Professional Technology Temple at 10:59am yesterday alleged that the affair started when Li was the director-general of Tainan’s Water Resources Bureau.
The post included photographs of Li and the woman together, saying that the affair appeared to have cooled off recently.
The woman only began talking about her relationship with Li after he left her when he was promoted to minister, the post said.
Li traveled with the press corps to Pingtung County on Sunday to inspect the Highway Bureau’s land crab protection program.
He was scheduled to return to Taipei yesterday afternoon after a brief tour of the Kenting Weather Radar Station, which ended at about 10am.
Li reportedly avoided the press corps by changing his high-speed rail ticket and boarded the train from the Tainan station instead of the one in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營).
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
RSS