The National Alliance of Taiwan Women’s Associations yesterday led 26 organizations in demanding that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生) apologize after a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker accused him of sexual harassment.
DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said that Chen pressed his belly against her during a scuffle inside the legislative chamber on Tuesday.
Chen said that the accusation was unwarranted.
“It was not sexual harassment, as it is impossible to become pregnant from a belly,” he said.
“My belly made contact with her,” Chen told reporters. “What is her problem? She thinks too highly of herself.”
“I do not have feelings for her,” he said. “She is being vain and self-important.”
Wang Kuang-yu (王冠予), head of Chen’s legislative office, wrote on Facebook that Fan “is trying to get media attention.”
“She should look herself in the mirror,” Wang wrote, adding: “We question her personality.”
The alliance said that lawmakers should know better.
“We are disappointed that it has been 15 years since the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法) was promulgated, but we still have legislators who do not understand that sexual advances and similar actions that violate the will of another person constitute sexual harassment,” the alliance said in a statement. “It has nothing to do with whether a woman will get pregnant.”
The comments by Chen and Wang added to the insult and vilified a victim, it said.
“The remarks showed that the men seriously lack understanding on issues of sexual equality,” it said. “They did not try to comprehend and make a self-assessment, but continued to use disparaging words and added to the sexual harassment.”
“Every person has the right not to be violated by sexual harassment, it is guaranteed by the law,” the alliance said. “The KMT, which Chen belongs to, is silent on the matter. It is as though the party had given such behavior the green light.”
Speaking to reporters after the scuffle, Fan said that Chen prodded her from behind three times.
“He did not express regret and said his belly would not result in pregnancy, so it was not sexual harassment,” she said. “Then he demanded that I provide evidence.”
“It was not just Chen Hsueh-sheng, but the whole party through their reactions — they have no understanding about sexual equality and their comments made even more uncomfortable,” she said.
KMT Legislator Hsu Chih-jung (徐志榮) wrote on Facebook that “it looked like Fan was smiling throughout, as though she was enjoying it.”
After receiving criticisn for the comment, Hsu said that “enjoying” was merely a description and people should not be offended by his use of the word.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods