The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Friday its representative office in Switzerland showed poor judgment in handling a letter requesting judicial assistance in a case of alleged money laundering involving members of the former first family.
An official from the ministry was referring to the representative office’s method of forwarding the letter from the Swiss authorities to MOFA. The official said that the representative office received the letter, dated June 16, early last month but the correspondence did not reach MOFA until late last month.
George Liu (劉寬平), Taiwan’s de facto representative to Switzerland, the Central News Agency said that the Swiss Department of Justice sent the letter to his office via ordinary mail and did not mark it as confidential.
Liu said he therefore forwarded the letter to MOFA via the ordinary mailing process, but unfortunately, it missed the weekly post and was delayed for another week.
In the letter, Swiss authorities requested judicial assistance in probing a case of possible money laundering by former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚).
The MOFA official said that the ministry, after listening to the explanations offered by Liu and other staff members, concluded that the letter had not been deliberately delayed, but that the representative office had shown a “lack of political judgment.”
The ministry announced late on Friday night that Liu would be replaced by Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Hsieh Fa-dah (謝發達).
Liu, a former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator, offered to resign in June and tendered a written resignation to Foreign Affairs Minister Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) late last month.
Other personnel reshuffles included the appointment of former representative to Fiji Liu Fu-tien (劉富添) as the new representative to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, representative to Mongolia Liu Chih-kung (劉志攻) as the representative to the Czech Republic and director of Taipei Liaison Office in Johannesburg Lee Ming-liang (李明亮) as the representative to Turkey.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
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