China said yesterday it had put to death nine people over deadly ethnic unrest in Xinjiang, the first executions since the violence erupted in July.
Authorities convicted 21 defendants last month — nine were sentenced to death, three were given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, a sentence usually commuted to life in jail, and the rest were handed various prison terms.
“The first group of nine people who were sentenced to death recently have already been executed in succession, with the approval of the Supreme Court,” said Hou Hanmin, spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government.
It was not clear, however, when the executions took place.
Previous statements by the Xinjiang government said eight of the nine were Uighurs and one was Han Chinese.
The violence erupted on July 5, pitting Uighurs against Han Chinese. An official toll put the number of dead at 197, with more than 1,600 injured. Han vigilantes then went on a rampage against Uighurs two days later, but the exact number of casualties from that day has never been divulged.
The 21 defendants were convicted of crimes such as murder, intentional damage to property, arson, and robbery.
Han Junbo, the Han Chinese man who was sentenced to death, was convicted of killing a Uighur man, a previous Xinjiang government statement said.
One of the Uighurs given the death penalty was found guilty of beating two people to death with another defendant, as well as stealing people’s possessions.
Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, condemned the executions, saying the Uighurs who were put to death had not been able to meet with their families.
“We regret that the United States and Europe have not adopted effective measures towards China regarding the death penalty issue,” he said by telephone from Sweden.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
RSS