Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago.
There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else.
Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation.
Photo: AP
Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he had decided to publicize the incident after seeing many political workers in Taiwan share their experience of being sexually harassed at work.
In his first response on Friday, Wang said that the accusation was completely unfounded.
Wang, one of the leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student demonstrations, said Lee was simply using the anniversary of the protests, which unsurprisingly indicated his political intentions.
“The sexual harassment mentioned by the author [Lee] did not exist,” Wang wrote on Facebook on Friday. “I have a lot of things to do now and will not make any additional response [to the accusation]. My political activities will not be affected by the accusation and will proceed as scheduled.”
Lee, a former aide of independent Taipei City Councilor Lin Liang-chun (林亮君), wrote that he had met Wang and Wang’s aide for the first time in Taichung nine years ago.
He wrote that when Wang invited him to the US, he was about to turn 20 and had started participating in social movements in Taiwan, adding that he had been happy to accept the invitation, thinking it would be good to travel with the famous Chinese democracy movement leader.
Lee said that on the night of June 6, 2014, Wang’s aide left Lee and Wang in a hotel room in New York’ Flushing neighborhood.
Wang approached him while he was working on his notebook computer and told him not to focus so much on the computer, but to rather to go to the window and take a look at the scenery, Lee said.
He said he was not interested in the scenery, but out of respect for Wang, he walked to the window, which was when Wang allegedly held him from behind and kissed him without his permission.
Wang pushed him onto the bed, while continuing to kiss him, Lee said.
He said that Wang started to take off his own pants and tried to have sex with him, but he pushed him away, saying he had undergone anal fistula surgery just before he had left for the US and asking him to stop.
Lee said that Wang stopped, but over the following week, cracked jokes with sexual implications and hinted that he wanted to sleep with him.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS