Police officers from precincts in Taipei and New Taipei City are to be permanently deployed at each of the Taipei MRT commuter rail system’s 109 stations to ensure “freedom from fear” as the nation continues to reel following Wednesday’s brutal knife attack that left four dead and 24 injured.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) announced the new policy on Friday, adding that the two cities are cooperating closely.
However, Hau did not specify when the new policy will go into effect.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
His comments were a response to questions over the incident at the Taipei City Council.
Taipei City Councilor Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) said the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC, 台北捷運公司), which operates the MRT, should make public the audio and video recordings from the incident so that city councilors can put questions to the municipal government based on all the facts.
TRTC president Tan Gwa-guang (譚國光) said that since the case is still under investigation, the recordings can be provided only with consent from judicial authorities.
The driver of the train, in which 21-year-old college student Cheng Chieh (鄭捷) allegedly went on a killing spree with a fruit knife on Wednesday, and the chief of Jiangzicui Station, where Cheng was apprehended, have been taken off duty for three days and could not be reached.
The Legislative Yuan on Friday released a joint statement signed by all political parties calling for the National Police Agency to thoroughly re-examine and increase police deployment on metro systems, railways and airports.
Meanwhile, police yesterday said the 110 police emergency service line and the 119 fire emergency telephone line have received increased numbers of calls over the past couple of days from members of the public reporting people and online messages that they considered to be suspicious.
In one case, a 26-year-old man surnamed Lin (林) in Taoyuan was arrested yesterday on charges of terrifying the public after a netizen reported that he posted on Facebook on Thursday: “My turn to kill people, at Kaohsiung MRT after I get discharged from hospital tomorrow.”
Lin, who was hospitalized due to a car accident, worked at a retail store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli City (中壢). He was quoted by police as saying that he did not really mean to kill people, but that he just wanted to draw attention to his page, adding that he deleted the post five minutes after realizing someone had reposted it.
Additional reporting by Chou Min-hung
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS