A researcher at the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) think tank apologized online on Monday, after numerous women accused him of sexual harassment.
National Policy Foundation special associate researcher Albert Tzeng (曾柏文) on Facebook said he wanted to apologize “to any women who have been offended by my past indiscretions,” after two women publicly accused him of impropriety while he was an editor at Initium Media (端傳媒).
The case is only the latest in spate of accusations in recent days, which media have dubbed Taiwan’s #MeToo movement.
The allegations surfaced on Friday last week, when author Wu Hsiao-le (吳曉樂) posted on Facebook about an unnamed former editor who insisted on chatting alone in his car about his marital problems in a conversation that made her feel like she was “suffocating.”
In a followup post on Sunday, Wu said that five women messaged her to share their own experiences with the editor, who she publicly named as being Tzeng.
Later that day, Wu wrote that the number of women messaging her had now reached the double digits, some with stories of Tzeng using inappropriate hugging or other physical contact.
In a separate post, former Initium Media contributor Alison Zhao (趙思樂) said she was harassed by Tzeng and another senior media figure when she was in Taiwan to promote her book at the end of 2017.
Zhao said that Tzeng messaged her directly to apologize, which she accepted.
Tzeng on Monday wrote that he was “ashamed to think of the harm he may have caused others."
He said he heard such allegations against him in 2015, when he had a different understanding of sexual harassment.
However, Tzeng said he has since come to realize that chatting alone in a vehicle might be frightening, especially when with a superior, and since returning to Taichung in 2017 has tried to avoid being alone with women or commenting on their appearance.
In a statement on Sunday, the KMT said that Tzeng has cooperated on special projects with the think tank in the past, but has no cooperative relationship now.
The parties involved have also publicly accepted Tzeng’s apology, it said, adding that it respects their handling of the situation.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS