Five members of the Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP) were yesterday indicted for allegedly attacking and injuring several university students during protests at a music festival in September.
The “Sing! China: Shanghai-Taipei Music Festival,” a result of memorandums of understanding on cultural and arts events signed by Taipei and Shanghai in 2010 and 2014 respectively, was scheduled to run eight hours on Sept. 24 at National Taiwan University’s (NTU) athletic field in Taipei, but was canceled after two hours due to protests by students, who said the school failed to prioritize their right to use campus facilities.
Following the cancelation, three students were allegedly assaulted by CUPP members.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted the five CUPP members on charges including assault resulting in injury, uttering threats and destruction of personal property.
The five included Chang Wei (張瑋), the second son of CUPP founder Chang An-le (張安樂), also known as the “White Wolf,” a former leader of the Bamboo Union gang who is known for supporting Taiwan’s unification with China.
The other four are Hu Ta-kang (胡大剛), Yang Shao-jui (楊紹瑞), Wang Shao-bin (王啟鑌) and Lin Shao-tse (林紹哲), who allegedly used metal rods to attack the students and protesters outside the music festival.
Prosecutors also indicted one protester, Lee Po-chang (李柏璋), who allegedly argued and fought with the CUPP members, causing facial injuries to Yang and breaking a pair of eyeglasses.
Lee, who is known for his outspoken pro-Taiwan independence views, has been nicknamed the “Machine Gun of Taiwanese Independence.”
Among the most severe casualties from the incident was NTU student Chang Keng-wei (張耿維), who was struck on the back of the head.
Investigators said that a video filmed by a bystander showed Hu approaching Chang Keng-wei from behind and striking him several times on the head and other parts of his body with a collapsible metal rod.
They added that the video showed Hu angrily confronting Lee’s girlfriend, who was filming the attack with her smartphone, telling her: “Don’t come any closer. If you do, I’ll hit you as well.”
Investigators said the video also shows Chang Wei apparently directing the attack by pointing with his hands and shouting instructions to CUPP members when they confronted the protesters outside the NTU campus.
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
Four former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the territory’s largest national security case were released yesterday after more than four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom. Former legislators Claudia Mo (毛孟靜), Jeremy Tam (譚文豪), Kwok Ka-ki (郭家麒) and Gary Fan (范國威) were part of a group of 47 public figures — including some of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy advocates — who were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election. The case fell under a National Security Law imposed on the territory by Beijng, and drew international condemnation and warnings
RSS