The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is considering reinstating the oversight system established under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government following recent scandals involving officials at representative offices, ministry officials said yesterday.
Allegations implicating former representative to Fiji Victor Chin (秦日新), who is suspected of misusing public funds and other irregularities, as well as accusations made by a Fijian female employee about an alleged sexual assault by one of Chin’s aides, Leon Liu (劉壽軒), rocked the representative office in Fiji last month, forcing the ministry to intervene to contain the matter.
Diplomatic officials said the recent scandals cast a cloud over the ministry and prompted Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) to raise the question of reinstating inspections at representative offices at a recent meeting.
Yang’s proposal was immediately rejected by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡), who said the inspection teams under the DPP administration performed poorly because they did not understand the local political situation at the representative offices.
Then-minister of foreign affairs Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂) established the inspection teams under the ministry’s Research and Planning Board in 2002.
The inspection teams regularly visited the nation’s overseas representative offices to evaluate the performance and behavior of officials.
Their jurisdiction included affairs related to the promotion of representative offices, consular affairs, compatriot affairs, executive management, resource management and auditing the representative offices’ finances and books.
Former ministry officials called on the ministry last month to reinstate the inspection system, saying that other developed countries such as the US, the UK and South Korea performed similar inspections of their overseas personnel.
The system caused discontent among some diplomatic staff, and it was abolished when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came into office in 2008.
After officials familiar with the mechanism explained its operations, Shen agreed that reinstating inspections of representative offices could be effective, but said that the term “inspection teams” should be avoided.
DPP caucus whip Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) criticized the Ma administration over the matter, saying abolishing the inspections had directly led to scandals, turning Taiwan into a laughingstock on the international stage.
“I would be very glad to see the review system revived,” Tsai said.
Ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) confirmed that the ministry was discussing how to reinforce oversight using current systems, adding that reinstating the “inspection teams” was still under discussion.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the