The Control Yuan has impeached the nation’s former ambassador to Saint Lucia, Peter Chen (陳家彥), after it concluded that he did sexually harass a fellow female diplomat back in 2016 as she alleged.
The government watchdog issued the impeachment yesterday, referred the case to the Disciplinary Court, which handles cases of civil servant misconduct, to level punishment, it said.
Among the disciplinary measures Chen could face are being relieved of his duties, having his pension and/or salary cut, being given a demerit, or being demoted.
Photo: Taipei Times
Chen, who served as ambassador to the Caribbean ally from mid-2020 to early 2025, was impeached based on the government watchdog’s own investigation into a sexual harassment accusation by one of Chen’s female subordinates when he was deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA) Department of Protocol.
According to the impeachment report, Chen, a supervisor of the victim in the Department of Protocol, asked the victim to brief him on a special project in a hotel room in May 2016.
While in the hotel room, Chen allegedly put his arms around the victim’s waist and forced her down on the hotel room bed against her will.
Chen even tried to stop the woman from leaving the room even though she had specifically told him several times that she did not think the act was appropriate and asked him to stop doing so, according to the report.
The victim originally did not want to make the case public until she later found she could possibly cross paths with Chen again at MOFA in the future, given that both are diplomats.
She officially filed a complaint over Chen’s harassment to the ministry on Oct. 16, 2024.
MOFA completed its internal probe into the matter and found the victim’s accusation legitimate on Nov. 13, 2024, before handing the case to the Control Yuan.
In his defense, Chen told MOFA and the Control Yuan that the victim’s accusation was unfounded and that she leveled the charge only because she held a grudge against him because he had been harsh on her at work.
After speaking to several witnesses related to the case and looking into the available evidence, including an apology Chen sent to the victim’s phone following the incident, the Control Yuan deemed Chen’s behavior unbecoming of a diplomat.
It said his actions had seriously damaged the imagine of a diplomat and the country as a whole, and therefore impeached him, it said.
Asked to comment, MOFA said yesterday that it fully respected the Control Yuan’s decision.
Chen is currently an ambassador on home assignment at MOFA’s Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs.
‘ANGRY’: Forgetting the humiliations and sacrifices of ‘the people of the Republic of China’ experienced disqualified Lai from being president, Ma Ying-jeou said Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday criticized President William Lai (賴清德) over what he called “phrasing that downplayed Japan’s atrocities” against China during World War II. Ma made the remarks in a post on Facebook on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Ma said he was “angry and disappointed” that Lai described the anniversary as the end of World War II instead of a “victory in the war of resistance” — a reference to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). The eight-year war was a part of World War II, in which Japan and the other Axis
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday announced a ban on all current and former government officials from traveling to China to attend a military parade on Sept. 3, which Beijing is to hold to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. "This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Republic of China’s victory in the War of Resistance [Against Japan]," MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a regular news briefing in Taipei. To prevent Beijing from using the Sept. 3 military parade and related events for "united
‘OFFSHORE OPERATIONS’: Also in Dallas, Texas, the Ministry of Economic Affairs inaugurated its third Taiwan Trade and Investment Center to foster closer cooperation The 2025 Taiwan Expo USA opened on Thursday in Dallas, Texas, featuring 150 Taiwanese companies showcasing their latest technologies in the fields of drones, smart manufacturing and healthcare. The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the event’s organizer, said the exhibitors this year include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn), the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer; AUO; PC brand Asustek Computer; and drone maker Thunder Tiger. In his opening speech, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said he expected Texas to become a world-class center for innovation and manufacturing as US technology companies from Silicon Valley and Taiwanese manufacturers form an industrial cluster
A 20-year-old man yesterday evening was electrocuted and fell to his death after he climbed a seven-story-high electricity tower to photograph the sunset, causing a wildfire on Datong Mountain (大同山) in New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林), the Taoyuan Police Department said today. The man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), was accompanied on an evening walk by a 20-year-old woman surnamed Shang (尚) who remained on the ground and witnessed the incident, capturing a final photograph of her friend sitting atop the tower before his death, an initial investigation showed. Shang then sought higher ground to call for help, police said. The New Taipei
RSS