Taiwan’s business and political leaders yesterday lauded former Academia Sinica president Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) at a luncheon in recognition of his receiving a prestigious award and having his name cleared in a public prosecution case.
Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) hosted the luncheon at a lounge in the Legislative Yuan to honor Wong, who in September received this year’s Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry, among the most recognized prizes in the field. Winners receive US$500,000.
You organized the event under the aegis of the Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry (IBMI), of which Wong has is the current chairman.
Photo: Liao Chen-Hui, Taipei Times
The event was also attended by former legislative speakers Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) and Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who was the founding chairman in 2002.
Leaders of Taiwan’s medical and biotechnology sectors were in attendance, along with directors of major hospitals and bosses of Powerchip Semiconductor, New Kinpo Group, Shinkong Textile, Qisda Corp and other industry heads.
You said that Taiwan is proud to be home to such an outstanding research scientist, while also making mention of Wong’s acquittal of bribery charges in 2018.
“We are delighted that the justice system acquitted Wong, and that the Control Yuan cleared his name in March ... The judiciary has restored his good reputation,” You said.
“Although justice delayed is justice denied, we are all happy about this result,” he added.
“I have witnessed Wong’s major contributions since 2007, when he served as Academia Sinica president, and pushed for Taiwan to develop the biotechnology and medical healthcare sectors,” Wang said.
“I have the utmost respect for Wong’s efforts to strive for these developments, and for his many accomplishments in science,” he added.
Wang added that it is the first time for three legislative speakers, past and present, to gather at a function to honor an important figure.
“It is unprecedented and might never happen again,” he said.
Wong stood to express his gratitude to You and the former legislative speakers, and for continuing to support the work conducted by IBMI, and for supporting him through “past unpleasantries.”
Wong said that information and communications technology industries are helping biotechnology and medical healthcare sectors integrate into the digital world.
“IBMI will serve as a platform for this development, and Taiwan has strong leading positions in these sectors for many new innovations,” he said.
Wong was indicted in 2017 for allegedly contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) for receiving 3,000 shares in OBI Pharma from the company’s chairman, Michael Chang (張念慈).
The Shilin District Court acquitted Wong and other company executives in 2018.
“My indictment resulted solely from prosecutors’ misconceptions about the technologies in question and the practices of technology transfers,” Wong said in a statement at the time.
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