Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) was sentenced to 30 days in jail yesterday for “slapping” Chinese Nationality Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) in the face during a cross-strait negotiation briefing to the legislature on April 22 last year.
The Taiwan High Court said Chiu had insulted Lee by “slapping” his face in public at the legislature.
However, Chiu can pay a NT$30,000 fine instead of serving time in jail. The sentence is final.
Lee filed suit against Chiu accusing her of “insulting” him during a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee meeting.
The committee had invited Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) to brief it ahead of the third round of cross-strait talks.
Legislators scuffled when Lee said that instead of criticizing Chiang for failing to show up, the DPP should have condemned the heads of the SEF under the DPP administration for failing to report to the committee. Lee and Chiu got into a shouting match after Lee asked Chiu not to interrupt him and “show some manners.”
Chiu later “slapped” Lee in the face after he challenged her to hit him and called her a “shrew.”
The Taipei District Court found Chiu guilty in the first trial, fining her NT$10,000, which could be converted to a work sentence.
She appealed, denying she had intended to insult Lee in public. She said she had simply “gently touched” Lee’s face because he had called her a shrew.
Chiu yesterday said she would rather serve the 30-day sentence than pay a fine, adding that the judicial system was unreasonable.
Although she had yet to see the official ruling, she said she would not appeal.
“Our legal system is dead. I would rather be locked up to show how ridiculous and laughable this court ruling is,” she said.
She said it was unfair that Lee was acquitted of insulting her by saying she “lacked manners.”
“It was an insult and women should not have to put up with being subject to this by men. I acted properly to defend myself,” she said. “Do women deserve to be bullied by men?”
Lee said in a text message to reporters that he hoped Chiu would refrain from “hitting other people or giving others the finger” in future.
He told reporters later yesterday that he hoped Chiu would keep her promise to go to jail instead of paying a fine.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VINCENT Y. CHAO
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,
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
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 —