Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Lee Hsin (李新) yesterday morning died after falling from a high-rise apartment in an apparent suicide, police and investigators said.
At about 5am, Lee, 64, plunged from his ex-wife’s 11th-floor residence in a residential complex on Taipei’s Anhe Road.
A resident of the unit below said he heard a noise and looked outside to see Lee standing on a ledge with his hands on the railing, eyes looking down.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“I asked him: ‘What are you doing out there?’ Then he just jumped,” the neighbor said.
Paramedics found Lee dead at the scene.
Police closed down the area to collect evidence and escorted Lee’s ex-wife, who was in shock, to Cathay General Hospital for treatment.
Lee might have been depressed by a chronic illness and by his girlfriend having asked to live separately from him, a source said on condition of anonymity.
KMT Taipei City Council caucus secretary-general Chen Yung-te (陳永德) said Lee had attempted suicide on Sept. 17, the night before the city council session began.
Lee took “50 or 60 sleeping pills” and was sent to a hospital, which discharged him the next day, Chen said.
The next day he went to work and attended a party caucus meeting, but appeared “sallow,” he added.
“He talked about his health repeatedly and did not seem to be his normal self,” Chen said.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said Lee had shingles, but she did not expect him to kill himself.
She said that on Wednesday night she gave Lee a bill on preschool education to cosign, adding that he told her: “It is high time this gets done.”
Lee was a candidate in this month’s KMT Central Committee election, but had said he might have to withdraw due to stress and poor health, Wang said.
“Running for a seat on the central committee is not something you join and do not finish, but my understanding is that he was suffering physically,” she said.
KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said she would remember Lee Hsin as a brave and honest man.
“Lee Hsin’s dedication to the city and the nation will not be forgotten. I hope his family will take care of themselves and I am grateful to have worked with him,” Lee Yen-hsiu said.
Lee Hsin did not leave a note behind prior to his apparent suicide, sources said.
New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) said Lee Hsin’s ailing health might have contributed to his suicide, as he had complained about it.
Yok said that Lee Hsin, who was his assistant when Yok was a lawmaker, had reached out to him in the past few days, but he was too busy to schedule an appointment.
He said he regrets not having talked to Lee Hsin before his death, as Lee Hsin had supported him 29 years ago during a difficult period of chemotherapy.
“His death causes me great sadness and regret,” Yok said. “He did not spell things out to me at the time. He only said: ‘My health has been extremely poor lately.’”
“We hope his family will get through this,” he added.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA