Taiwanese Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) yesterday filed a lawsuit against exiled Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) on accusations Wang tried to rape him.
Lee, a former political worker, told reporters at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office that he had not thought he would have to take the matter to court just to press Wang for an apology.
Asked if he had any evidence to back up his accusation, Lee said he has presented it to prosecutors.
Photo: CNA
Lee in a social media post on Friday last week accused Wang of attempting to rape him in a New York City hotel room in 2014, and demanded that he apologize by yesterday.
Lee said Wang kissed him against his will, before pinning him down on a bed and allegedly attempting to rape him.
He said he pushed Wang away and asked him to stop.
Lee said he has been approached by several individuals who also said they were targets of sexual misconduct by Wang.
The gender equality education committee at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), where Wang served as an adjunct assistant professor until 2017, has launched a probe into the allegations, Lee said, calling on former students at the university and others to come forward if they have been sexually harassed or assaulted.
The university on Sunday said that Wang would be barred from teaching at any university in Taiwan if the accusations against him turn out to be true.
Wang yesterday in an online post said that he has arrived in Taiwan from the US, where he has permanent residency, to cooperate with the legal proceedings.
He said that he cut short a visit to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University to travel to Taiwan.
“I will not shy away. I ask only that the judiciary handle this case in a fair and just manner so that the truth can be known,” Wang said.
Wang has denied the accusations, saying that Lee’s claim differed greatly from his memories and understanding.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing