The nation's representative to Singapore said he had decided to tender his resignation because he didn't see eye to eye with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government's campaign of "de-sinification" and the removal of artifacts related to dictator Chiang Ka-shek's (蔣介石) regime.
Hu Wei-jen (
He told the Chinese-language daily that he had said he had decided to end his 35-year career as a public servant.
Hu assumed his current post in June 2005. He is scheduled to return to Taiwan tomorrow.
He also told the Central News Agency (CNA) yesterday that he would travel to the US in September to serve as a visiting scholar at Harvard University.
"Since we are all clearly Chinese, I do not approve of some of the policies [adopted by the DPP administration,]" he was quoted as saying in the CNA report.
Hu said that Singapore and Taiwan treat the early history of the Republic of China (ROC) very differently.
In the two years he served as representative in Singapore, he said, he visited "Evening Garden", a museum dedicated to Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) more than a dozen times.
Hu said he visited the garden repeatedly not just because the picture of his own father was featured among the exhibits, but for the richness and educational content in the museum exhibits pertaining to the history of the ROC.
Hu is the son of Army general Hu Zongnan (
"I have learned much that I didn't know about the ROC's history in Singapore," Hu Wei-jen told the CNA. "Even Singapore accepts and honors this history ... What right does Taiwan have to pull down the bronze [statue] of Chiang?"
Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Yeh Fei-bi (
Yeh said Hu Wei-jen, while serving as the nation's representative to Germany and Singapore, has a history of putting personal views above his duties as a diplomat as well as putting personal interests above that of the nation.
The ministry will "begin to review the matter," Yeh said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union spokeswoman Chou Mei-li (周美里) and DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), who is a member of the legislature's Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee, were critical of Hu Wei-jen when asked by reporters for comments.
"As a government official -- particularly as Taiwan's representative stationed abroad -- he ought to defend the government's policy. If he cannot agree with the government's policy, he should go," Chou said.
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) and People First Party Legislator Daniel Hwang (黃義交), said they admired Hu for his courage in expressing his views.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS