The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will launch an investigation to determine whether the nation’s representative to Switzerland, George Liu (劉寬平), was derelict in his duty when he failed to immediately forward to Taipei a request by Swiss authorities to check the bank accounts of the son and daughter-in-law of former president Chen Shu-bian (陳水扁), a ministry spokesman said.
Liu’s resignation was officially signed off by the Executive Yuan last Saturday. The ministry insisted that the timing of the resignation had nothing to do with the recent scandal, saying the ministry had approved Liu’s resignation in June.
“We will definitely look into the matter to see if Liu committed any administrative error. It might be too harsh to call it a punishment, but if he is found guilty of any wrongdoing, we will take the necessary action in line with the Law on Discipline of Civil Servants (公務人員懲戒法),” ministry spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said.
Critics have blamed Liu for delaying the investigation by holding on to the request for judicial assistance by the Federal Department of Justice and Police of the Swiss Confederation for 10 days before contacting the ministry.
Swiss authorities were alerted by Merrill Lynch Bank (Suisse) earlier this year when the bank suspected former president’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) of money laundering.
Early last month, the Federal Department of Justice and Police notified Taiwan’s Swiss representative office to request judicial assistance from Taipei. The letter had been translated into Chinese by the Swiss before handing it to the representative office.
In an interview with the Central News Agency, Liu admitted to full knowledge of the letter’s contents, but vehemently denied that he stalled the process in order to tip off the former president or members of his family.
Liu also said that he did not think it was an urgent request, so instead of informing the ministry immediately, he instructed the office to send the letter back via ordinary mail, which took seven working days.
Liu’s office received the letter early last month. He flew back to Taipei late last month to meet and submit his resignation to Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) on July 29.
“It would be a reasonable deduction to say that Liu never mentioned anything about the Swiss’ request when he was in Taipei last month,” the spokesman said.
Liu will serve two more months before he is officially relieved of his duty. He will be replaced by Hsieh Fa-dah (謝發達), the former deputy of Ministry of Economic Affairs.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS