`Dallas' East: Sex Scandal Transfixes Taiwanese

TAIPEI - From warring wives to a wayward heir, a star-crossed love affair to sexual harassment charges, the saga of the powerful Wang family is the talk of Taiwan.

The affair known as Taiwan's real-life version of "Dynasty" surfaced in September, when Annie Lu, a 27-year-old college student, publicly accused her professor of flunking her out of a doctoral program because she rebuffed his sexual advances.

In a society where sexual harassment is only now becoming a social issue, such allegations are dynamite. But more was to come.

The professor, Hung Ming-chou of National Taiwan University, claimed he had been telephoned on Lu's behalf by none other than Winston Wang, 44-year-old heir to Taiwan's biggest conglomerate, the $5 billion Formosa Plastics Group.

A business executive and academic, Wang had tutored Lu for her master's degree. What emerged now was that the two were also lovers, and that Wang - who is married with two children - had tried to use his influence to change the professor's mind.

Lu went public, blitzing newspapers and TV stations with her story and calling Wang "my one and only lover."

She told the Exclusive News magazine that she had even written to Wang Yung-ching, 80-year-old patriarch of the Wang family, asking him to accept her as Winston's concubine.

She claimed Wang Sr. refused, even though he himself has three wives, accumulated in previous decades when polygamy was common among the rich and powerful.

Meanwhile, the story was starting to ripple into the financial world. Newspapers speculated that the revelations were tied to a power struggle inside Formosa Plastics, and prices of the group's three blue-chip stocks all plunged.

To Wang Sr., who has always shunned publicity, the gossip must be deeply embarrassing - especially the published theories as to whether Annie Lu was a pawn in the rivalries among his wives.

Although he made no public comments, the Wealth monthly quoted an unidentified aide as saying Wang Sr. "made a bout of anger unseen before" and at one point considered whether to sever relations with his son.

Last week, the patriarch acted with the firmness characteristic of a man who built a vast business from scratch and still goes jogging.

It was announced that he was banishing his son to the United States for a year. Winston Wang's wife, whom Wang Sr. is said to dote on, will stay in Taiwan with the children.

The melodrama became complete this month when Winston Wang issued a contrite statement:

"I did not expect the ripples that had surfaced from the claims made against the National Taiwan University and from my relationship with Annie Lu.

"I learned a big lesson myself but it had already hurt my most respected father and mother ... and I apologize."

What he will do in the United States is unclear. Formosa Plastics has six petrochemical complexes there, but these are managed by a step-sister from a rival faction of the family.