Taipei Deputy Mayor Samuel Wu (吳秀光) offered his resignation yesterday in response to allegations that he had accepted bribes from an arms dealing company.
Wu said that the more than NT$1 million (US$32,000) he received from Lai Fu Trading Co between 2005 and 2006 was a consulting fee for his work on a research project for the company, but said he would leave his position because media reports on the matter had damaged the Taipei City Government’s reputation.
“I don’t think my behavior was illegal, but the groundless media reports have already had a negative impact on the city government’s image and shifted the focus of the issue. I therefore offered my resignation this morning,” Wu said yesterday at Taipei City Hall.
Wu announced his resignation one day after a Next Magazine report accused him of taking bribes from Lai Fu Trading Co and failing to avoid a conflict of interest as a former official in the city government under former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
The report said the company won a bid to become a contractor for the construction of the city’s Neihu MRT line in 2003. It accused Wu of continuing to take money from the company after assuming office as deputy mayor in 2006.
Wu said on Wednesday that he did accept money from the company, but argued that he received the money as a consulting fee for his expertise on national security and the military and for conducting research.
Wu said he stopped taking the NT$90,000 monthly fee after the project was completed in June 2006.
Wu took up the position of deputy mayor in December that year.
Wu defended his actions, arguing that the consulting fee was not a bribe because he was a professor at Shih Hsin University at the time and did not hold any government position. His former position as deputy director of Ma’s New Taiwanese Foundation between 2004 and 2006 drew criticism from the pan-green camp, which speculated that Wu may have been passing the money on to Ma.
Wu dismissed the allegations again yesterday and said he would cooperate with investigators until the justice system proved his innocence.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday he respected Wu’s decision and that he believed in Wu’s integrity and innocence.
“I regret his decision to leave the position, but I think it’s also a responsible move,” Hau said yesterday at Taipei City Hall.
Hau said the Taipei City Government Ethics Department was investigating the case, adding that he believed nothing illegal had taken place.
Wu filed a defamation lawsuit against Next Magazine on Wednesday.
As one of Ma’s top aides, Wu was director of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission between 1999 and 2003 and served as the director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department from 2003 to 2004.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —