Doctors yesterday force-fed -- for the second time in a week -- a Chinese hijacker who is on a hunger strike to protest repatriation to China.
Shackled to a stretcher, Gao Jun (
The Hsinchu Mainlanders' Detention Center sent Gao to hospital for force-feeding last Friday.
PHOTO: LIN YU-FENG, TAIPEI TIMES
"Gao is mentally imbalanced and has displayed anti-social behavior. We hope to repatriate him as soon as possible," said Peng Ching-chin, deputy chief of the center.
"For humanitarian reasons, we must force-feed him to prolong his life," Peng said.
Peng said Gao and seven other Chinese hijackers at the center could be deported at any time.
"We are waiting for China's approval to accept them," Gao said.
Gao began his hunger strike on Feb. 19 when he was paroled by the Taipei Prison and transferred to the detention center to await deportation. He is protesting repatriation to China, where he could face another trial for hijacking and could face a maximum 15-year sentence.
Gao, a garment seller in the northern city of Qingdao, used a scalpel to hijack a Chinese Northern Airlines MD-82 jet while on a flight from Qingdao to Fuzhou on Dec. 8, 1993.
Taiwan detained Gao but returned the plane -- along with 129 passengers and eight crew mem-bers -- to China.
Gao sought political asylum, but was told he would be repatriated because Taiwan no longer welcomed Chinese hijackers because cross-strait ties had improved.
He was found guilty of hijacking and sentenced to 10 years in jail. Having served two-thirds of his term, he was paroled to await deportation.
Gao has reportedly attempted suicide seven times over the last seven years -- by swallowing a toothbrush, batteries, paper clips and a thermometer.
Since 1993, 16 people have hijacked 13 passenger planes from China to Taiwan to seek asylum.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2