The membership rights of National Civil Servant Association honorary chairman Harry Lee (李來希) have been suspended following his controversial comments about New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday.
Whether his membership should be revoked or he be expelled would be discussed by the party’s Disciplinary Committee, it said.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Lee accused Wang of exploiting the death of her daughter — a four-year-old nicknamed Xiao Deng Pao (小燈泡, little lightbulb) who was beheaded by Wang Ching-yu (王景玉) on March 28, 2016 — for personal gain.
Photo: Shih Hsiao-kuang, Taipei Times
Wang Ching-yu was convicted of murder and the Supreme Court last month upheld his sentence of life imprisonment.
Lee said that Claire Wang was “stepping on her own daughter’s head” and that she had used the tragedy in her family in exchange for wealth and power.
Lee’s personal attacks against Claire Wang appeared to have been triggered by her support for the recall of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who is facing a recall vote on June 6.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuan, Taipei Times
In his Facebook post, Lee wrote: “Does [Han] have a feud with her?” alongside a screenshot of a Facebook post Claire Wang had made on Friday last week urging people from Kaohsiung to “go home and vote” next month.
Lee’s comments have been met with widespread condemnation.
The association yesterday distanced itself from Lee, saying his comments had nothing to do with it, did not represent the association or the position held by civil servants as a whole.
Lee retired in July last year and is not a member of the association, it said.
He was appointed honorary chairman after his retirement, it said, adding that whether that title would be revoked is to be discussed by the association’s board.
Wang on Wednesday said her personal loss should not be used as a political tool to create division.
Lee’s comments were malicious, she said, adding that comments such as his had not stopped since her daughter’s death.
As a public figure, she should be subject to oversight and judgement, but they should be based on her performance in the Legislative Yuan, she said.
Han wrote on Facebook that as a person with children, he could not stand Lee’s remarks.
Whether they support or oppose his recall, people should stop such hate remarks and prevent more arguments from occurring, he wrote.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS