Elmer Fung

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 Ph.D. 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

He was a 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.

He and Li Ao formed the New Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election. 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."

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, but fined upon appeal to the Taiwan High Court. Hsieh refused to pay the fine and was imprisoned for three months. The Supreme Court heard an appeal of the case in 2010, and upheld the rulings for both Fung and Tai.

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

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 from National Taiwan University, where Fung was then a student.

In February 2004, a Taiwan-based foreign labourers' organization publicly accused Fung of raping his Filipina housekeeper. At least two incidents were alleged to have occurred, once in November 2003 and another in January 2004. Soon after the accusation, Democratic Progressive Party legislators discussed removing Fung from his position as a counselor to the legislature. On 8 July 2005 the presiding judge found him guilty based on matching DNA evidence. The decision was appealed to the Taiwan High Court, which upheld the ruling in 2007 and again in 2008. After the first High Court ruling, the Supreme Court offered to review the case. 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. 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. 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. Fung claimed he was severely ill, and his sentence was suspended until the completion of a health examination. Fung eventually served 85 days of the sentence before he was released on medical parole in January 2017.