Former ambassador to Nicaragua Jaime Wu (吳進木) had not informed the government of his decision to accept Nicaraguan citizenship, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, urging Wu to respond to public queries about his continued stay in the country despite the severance of diplomatic ties.
The Nicaraguan government on Dec. 9 switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. The following day it announced that Wu and his wife, Liu Chun-chiao (劉春嬌), were granted Nicaraguan citizenship in recognition of their contributions to the country for more than a decade.
While Wu had officially applied for retirement before the two nations cut ties, his decision to stay in the country has sparked controversy.
Photo taken from the Web site of the Republic of China embassy in Nicaragua
Wu had since 2020 applied for retirement several times and his application was approved on Sept. 28 last year, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing in Taipei yesterday.
However, the ministry had not been informed of his decision to receive Nicaraguan citizenship in advance, she said.
Wu had told the ministry that his wife could not travel long distances due to health issues, so the couple could not return to Taiwan for the time being, she said, adding that the ministry would not comment further on Liu’s health condition.
The ministry has contacted Wu through private channels and called on him to respond to public questions, she said.
Wu is still subject to the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Ou said.
The ministry is holding interagency discussions regarding calls to amend the law to prevent a similar incident, Ou said.
As a former diplomat, Wu should have striven for the greater good of the nation, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said separately in a video on Facebook yesterday.
However, his actions, including accepting Nicaraguan citizenship and staying in the Central American country after it cut ties with Taiwan, show that he has no professional ethics at all, which should be condemned by the public, Wang said.
It is questionable whether Wu did his utmost to protect the nation’s benefits and secrets during his tenure as a diplomat, he added.
The authorities should discuss whether to freeze Wu’s pension or take legal action, Wang said, urging Wu to return to Taiwan and explain his actions to the public.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas