Independent legislator May Chin’s aide jumps bail

The Taipei District Court has issued an arrest warrant for an aide of independent Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) after he jumped bail on Sunday. Judicial police had responded late on Sunday after an electronic wrist monitor belonging to Chang Chun-chieh (張俊傑), Chin’s former legislative office director, issued a low-battery alert, the court said in a statement yesterday. Police responding to the alert were unable to locate Chang, but recovered his wrist monitor, which had been “broken and thrown away,” the court said. Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times After notifying immigration authorities, the court issued an arrest warrant for Chang. Chin, Chang and 22 others were indicted on June 8 on corruption and fraud-related charges related to the embezzlement of public funds and the importation of unapproved COVID-19 test kits from China. Chin, who has denied wrongdoing, was accused of obtaining more than NT$7.87 million (US$249,430) in public funds through fraudulent claims for legislative assistants’ salaries, bonuses, overtime pay and childcare subsidies. This included registering several people, including Chin’s siblings, as legislative assistants, but they did not perform any duties, prosecutors alleged. Chang was accused of conspiring with Chin to fraudulently obtain funds earmarked for assistants’ salaries, as well as using an indigenous cultural association to fraudulently obtain more than NT$9.33 million from government agencies and state-owned enterprises. Prosecutors said that during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, Chin also authorized Chang to enlist others to illegally import 74,400 unapproved rapid test kits from China, circumventing medical device regulations. Chin said the rapid test kits were intended to help indigenous communities amid a shortage of the devices in Taiwan. In the indictment, prosecutors recommended a sentence of at least 16 years for Chang and 12-and-a-half years for Chin. Chang, who had been detained and held incommunicado for nearly four months before his indictment, was released on NT$10 million bail in June. At the time, Chang’s lawyers sought his release on health grounds, saying he was more than 70 years old and battling lung cancer. During the first day of his trial on Tuesday last week, Chang denied the corruption charges, but admitted to other offenses, such as document forgery. He said that he was not just a legislative aide in name, but had performed his duties and had no criminal intent. Taiwan, which accounts for more than half of the global outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing market, is well-positioned to develop copackaged optics (CPO) and manufacture precision silicon photonics chips, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Silicon photonics are emerging as a mainstream optical communications technology and is seen as key to overcoming bottlenecks in AI computing power. The technology is a key project under the government’s New 10 Major AI Infrastructure Projects, with industry, government, academia and research institutions working to overcome critical technological hurdles and build a self-reliant silicon photonics supply chain, the ministry said. Nvidia Corp in March invested US$4 Palau’s president yesterday called for a “unified” Pacific response to a missile test by China in July, while Taiwan and its Pacific allies a day earlier at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) reaffirmed their commitment to peace, stability and prosperity. China gave only a handful of nations short notice before test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile in July, sparking condemnation from several Pacific leaders. The 18-member PIF being held in Palau was expected to release a communique after press time last night, with a formal response to the test possibly included. Palau, which invited Taiwan to attend sideline events as an aid partner, urged The air force plans to build 26 more hardened aircraft shelters as the number of F-16Vs stationed along Taiwan’s east coast is expected to reach 120 when the final shipment of 66 jets procured from the US arrives. The incoming jets would be stationed at Chihhang Air Base in Taitung County, augmenting the F-16V Block 20s operated by the 5th Tactical Fighter Wing in Hualien County, officials said yesterday. The air force plans to allocate more than NT$6.88 billion (US$218.1 million) from next year to 2031 to build the shelters in Hualien and Taitung as part of the implementation of a “one China’s continued efforts to inject geopolitical rivalry into the region and disrupt Pacific nations’ discussions of regional issues warrant greater international attention, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) last week led a delegation to diplomatic ally Palau to attend events related to the 55th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) summit. However, the absence of some member-state leaders has been interpreted by some people as a sign of fracturing in Pacific unity. Thirteen PIF members were represented by their heads of state or government, while Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Samoa sent ministerial-level representatives, a diplomatic official