A Taiwanese man allegedly suffering from psychological problems stabbed a US student and a Singaporean businessman in front of National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday. The pair were hospitalized in stable condition, police said.
Taipei Police Department's Ta-an Precinct said 23-year-old Chan Chiao-wei (
After stabbing two men, Chan hailed a cab and went to the Hsiushan Police Station in Zhonghe City, where he turned himself in, police said.
A police officer at the station said Chan entered the station carrying a knife and said, "I just stabbed somebody at NTU. This is the knife."
Police said Chan could not give a coherent explanation for his actions and they think he might be suffering from psychological problems.
One of the victims was identified as Michael John Toy, 21, a student at National Taiwan Normal University's Mandarin Training Center (MTC), who has been in Taiwan since August.
The school said Toy was stabbed in the right arm and underwent surgery at the Tri-Service General Hospital. He should be able to leave the hospital within two to three days, the school said.
Pan Sung-jung (潘松榮), a 51-year-old businessman from Singapore, sustained severe injuries to his left arm.
A report aired by CTI cable TV quoted a female student as saying she had avoided being attacked by falling to the ground.
"He [Chan] walked toward me. I was scared and I fell so he would attack others," she said.
Lawrence Walker, acting spokesman for the American Institute in Taipei (AIT), said the institute could not comment on the attack because of privacy laws.
AIT would help Toy contact his family once it received permission from him to do so, he said.
Chan was released last night on NT$50,000 bail.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the