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.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS