A 53-year-old woman in Taipei jumped to her death on Saturday morning, leaving behind a note accusing President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of incompetence and of showing no concern for the sufferings of people.
Kuan Shu-ying (管淑櫻) climbed to the rooftop of the apartment building where she lived on Xinsheng N Road in Taipei at about 4:45am on Saturday. Police and firefighters soon arrived on the scene after receiving telephone calls from onlookers concerned to find Kuan sitting on the roof’s parapet.
Despite efforts to try to convince her to come down, Kuan refused, murmured criticisms of the government and jumped from the 11-story building.
Photo: Wu Yueh-hsiu, Taipei Times
Kuan left behind seven notes — six addressed to her family and one for Ma. In the latter, she called Ma an “incompetent president.”
In the note, Kuan said that, as a national leader, Ma frequently “does things that the people cannot understand” and that he is not fit to be president.
Kuan also accused the judiciary of being untrustworthy. Citing the recent scare over tainted oil, she said the way that the government handled it only made people feel more insecure.
“What’s the point of living in these circumstances?” Kuan wrote.
She went on to question whether Ma “would sleep well at night” as people suffer, and that a taxi driver who committed suicide to protest against government policies would not be the last person to do so.
Kuan was referring to the 58-year-old taxi driver who jumped from a bridge in Yangmingshan National Park last month, leaving a note criticizing the political infighting between Ma and Legislative Yuan Speaker Wan Jin-pyng (王金平).
“Tonight, I am going to give another life to you, which is mine,” Kuan declared at the end of the note.
Although firefighters had prepared an air cushion on the ground, they did not have time to inflate it sufficiently before Kuan jumped to her death.
Kuan’s friends and relatives told the media that she was disillusioned by Ma and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and often criticized the president and the party.
However, they did not expect Kuan to take such extreme action and were shocked by her death.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said it plans to revise the export control list for strategic high-tech products by adding 18 items under three categories — advanced 3D printing equipment, advanced semiconductor equipment and quantum computers — which would require local manufacturers to obtain licenses for their export. The ministry’s announcement yesterday came as the International Trade Administration issued a 60-day preview period for planned revisions to the Export Control List for Dual Use Items and Technology (軍商兩用貨品及技術出口管制清單) and the Common Military List (一般軍用貨品清單), which fall under regulations governing export destinations for strategic high-tech commodities and specific strategic high-tech commodities. The
RSS