Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday approved the resignation of a Cabinet minister amid allegations that the departing official had an extramarital affair.
The decision was made after a meeting between Jiang and Minister without Portfolio Chen Shi-shuenn (陳希舜) yesterday, Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said yesterday evening.
The resignation came after a report in the latest edition of the weekly Next Magazine on Wednesday that said the married Chen, 64, had made seven visits to the residence of Regina Wang (王韋堯), 44, director of National Taiwan University of Science and Technology’s (NTUST) Department of Industrial and Commercial Design, between April 9 and Friday last week.
Each visit began with Wang picking Chen up in her car outside the university in Taipei at about 8pm before heading to her home, where Chen would stay for about three hours, before leaving by himself in a taxi, according to the report.
Chen issued a statement late on Wednesday denying allegations of an affair with Wang, saying they met to discuss business, but adding that they should not have chosen to meet at Wang’s residence.
Chen reportedly met Wang about four years ago, when he was president of the university. As president, Chen signed a collaboration deal with Yulon Nissan Co on design innovation and resource sharing and also received largest single donation ever made to a tertiary vocational training institution in the nation — a pledge of NT$200 million (US$6.08 million) — from Zhuang Yong-shun (莊永順) of Aaeon Technology Co.
Sources have questioned whether Wang’s rapid promotion to the top of her department was linked to her alleged relationship with Chen.
She was an assistant professor during her first six years of teaching at the university before quickly rising through the ranks to become associate professor and then professor.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
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