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.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is next month to hold an exhibition in Osaka, Japan, showcasing the rich and unique history of Taiwanese folklore and literature. The exhibition, which is to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20 at the city’s Central Public Hall, is part of the “We Taiwan” at Expo 2025 series, highlighting Taiwan’s cultural ties with the international community, National Museum of Taiwan Literature director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) said. Folklore and literature, among Taiwan’s richest cultural heritages, naturally deserve a central place in the global dialogue, Chen said. Taiwan’s folklore would be immediately apparent at the entrance of the