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Elmer Fung
Elmer Fung
馮滬祥
	Feng during his tenure on the Fourth Legislative Yuan
Member of Legislative Yuan
	In office; 1 February 1999 – 31 January 2002
Constituency	Taipei City
Personal details
Born	8 May 1948; Shanghai, Republic of China
Died	25 September 2021 (aged 73)
Nationality	Republic of China
Political party	New Party (since 1993)
Other political; affiliations	Kuomintang (until 1993)
Alma mater	Tunghai University (BS); National Taiwan University (MS) ; Boston University (PhD)
Occupation	Professor, politician

Elmer Fung or Fung Hu-hsiang (Chinese: 馮滬祥; pinyin: Féng Hùxiáng; 8 May 1948 – 25 September 2021) was a Taiwanese politician. A member of the New Party, he represented Taipei City in the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2002. In 2000, he and Li Ao formed the New Party presidential ticket, which finished fifth.

Academic career

Fung graduated from Tunghai University in 1970, majoring in chemistry. He then completed his Master's degree at National Taiwan University in 1974. After that, Fung went to America and earned a PhD at Boston University in 1978.

Fung became the head of the Department of Philosophy of Tunghai University in 1979. He co-chaired the Research Center of Philosophy of the same college from 1983 to 1986. After leaving Tunghai, Fung served as the Dean of College of Liberal Arts of National Central University from 1986 to 1988.

Political career

Fung was secretary to President Chiang Ching-kuo from 1979 to 1986; advisor to premier Hau Pei-tsun from 1991 to 1992; an honorary chairman of the Service Centre Across the Taiwan Strait; and a member of the National Assembly. In 1986, Chen Shui-bian was jailed for eight months for libel after his pro-opposition magazine accused, among other things, Fung of plagiarism. His argument in court was he merely translated an English book for his doctoral thesis. The court ruled in his favor and sentenced Chen Shui-bian to jail for libel.^[1]^[2]

He and Li Ao formed the New Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election.^[3] Only Fung showed up to represent the New Party at a post-election press conference, where he stated that Chen Shui-bian won only because President Lee Teng-hui chose to "Dump Lien to save Chen."^[4]

Shortly after the election, First Lady of the Republic of China Tseng Wen-hui sued Fung, Hsieh Chi-ta, and Tai Chi for defamation. The three were cleared of charges,^[5] but fined upon appeal to the Taiwan High Court. Hsieh refused to pay the fine and was imprisoned for three months.^[6]^[7] The Supreme Court heard an appeal of the case in 2010, and upheld the rulings for both Fung and Tai.^[8]

In 2001, the Taiwan Association of University Professors ranked him at the top of a list delineating thirteen of the worst legislators.^[9] Shortly after stepping down from the Legislative Yuan in 2002, Fung started a business in China.^[10]

In 2003, investigator Ko Ching-ming named Fung one of the people who had collaborated with the Taiwan Garrison Command in 1974 to expel thirteen philosophy professors [zh] from National Taiwan University, where Fung was then a student.^[11]

In February 2004, a Taiwan-based foreign labourers' organization publicly accused Fung of raping his Filipina housekeeper.^[12] At least two incidents were alleged to have occurred, once in November 2003 and another in January 2004.^[12]^[13] Soon after the accusation, Democratic Progressive Party legislators discussed removing Fung from his position as a counselor to the legislature.^[14] On 8 July 2005 the presiding judge found him guilty based on matching DNA evidence.^[15] The decision was appealed to the Taiwan High Court, which upheld the ruling in 2007 and again in 2008.^[13] After the first High Court ruling, the Supreme Court offered to review the case.^[16] The Taiwan High Court heard the case again, and in February 2012 had cleared Fung of the charges because the housekeeper had made a statement recanting her accusations.^[17] However, in December, the High Court chose to reverse its ruling, stating that the housekeeper's earlier statements and assorted medical evidence showed that the accusation was not a lie.^[18] After a total of seven High Court trials, the Supreme Court ruled on the case in October 2016, and sentenced Fung to three years and four months imprisonment.^[19]^[20] Fung claimed he was severely ill, and his sentence was suspended until the completion of a health examination.^[21] Fung eventually served 85 days of the sentence before he was released on medical parole in January 2017.^[22]

Death

Fung fell in mid-September 2021, and sought medical treatment for a fracture. During his hospital stay, doctors discovered that cancer had recurred, and Fung died on 25 September 2021.^[23]

References

^ Ko, Shu-ling (6 November 2006). "Presidential Office in crisis: Journey from political asset to liability". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Ko, Shu-ling (8 May 2006). "Newsmaker: Embattled first lady just wants to live her own life". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Low, Stephanie (21 January 2000). "Li Ao agrees to running mate". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Liu, Shao-Hua (19 March 2000). "Also-rans claim minor victories". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Chuang, Jimmy; Lin, Mei-chun (27 March 2000). "Trio cleared of slander charges". Taipei Times. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
^ Lin, Mei-chun (1 April 2002). "Newsmakers: Former first lady shows her stronger side". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Huang, Tau-lin (2 March 2004). "Prison was a cinch, says defamation queen". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ "Tseng libel ruling upheld". Taipei Times. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
^ Huang, Joyce (16 April 2001). "Professors make list of legislature's 'troublemakers'". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Hsieh, Chun-Man; Shang, Tao-Ming (23 November 2002). "Defeated New Party brass take flight across the Strait". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Huang, Jewel (25 December 2003). "NTU to apologize for 1974 crackdown on professors". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ ^a ^b "MECO accused of rape cover-up". Taipei Times. 17 February 2004. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ ^a ^b Jimmy, Chuang (4 January 2008). "High Court upholds former legislator's sentence for rape". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Wu, Debby (4 November 2004). "Expel rape suspect: legislators". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Chang, Rich (9 July 2005). "Elmer Fung guilty of raping Filipina". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Chang, Rich (5 February 2007). "Supreme Court agrees to review former lawmaker Elmer Feng's rape conviction". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Chang, Rich (16 February 2016). "Elmer Fung clear of rape charges". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Chang, Rich (8 December 2012). "Former legislator may face prison over rape claims". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ Wang, Yang-yu; Chen, Christie (7 October 2016). "Supreme Court upholds former lawmaker's rape convictions". Central News Agency. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
^ "Former lawmaker found guilty of raping employee". Taipei Times. 9 October 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
^ You, Kai-hsiang; Chen, Christie; Wu, Lilian (12 October 2016). "Ex-lawmaker convicted of raping Filipino maid gets reprieve". Central News Agency. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
^ Pan, Jason (20 January 2017). "Authorities release convicted legislator on medical parole". Taipei Times. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
^ "前立委馮滬祥癌症病逝享壽73歲". China Times (in Chinese). 26 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.