A legislator was attacked by an army veteran in Taichung yesterday morning, sparking concern about violence on campaign trails.
While attending a Veteran's Day celebration in Taichung around 10am yesterday, People First Party (PFP) Legislator Shen Chih-hui (沈智慧) was attacked by 80-year old veteran Hsu Yu-shan (徐有山). According to media reports, Shen was mingling with voters when the veteran used a short scissor-like object to stab her in the back of the head and neck. Shen was sent to the nearby Taichung Veterans' General Hospital for treatment, where she received stitches. Representatives from both the hospital and Shen's campaign office confirmed that Shen was doing well and was still undergoing medical evaluation. As of press time, it was unclear when she would be released from the hospital.
Shen is running for re-election as a Taichung City representative in the year-end legislative elections.
According to a statement from Shen's Taichung campaign headquarters, Hsu attacked Shen out of frustration and anger. The veteran is a victim of a financial scam, and had pinned all his hopes on Shen's assistance, the legislator's younger sister, Shen Yu-lien (沈佑蓮), said in the statement. Hsu had lost the bulk of his savings in a scam in 1990 and was angry at the PFP legislator for not helping him retrieve his money, the statement added.
Lu Chen-ta (呂政達), director of Shen's legislative campaign, told the Taipei Times yesterday that Hsu had previously contacted the legislator in 1992, 1996 and 2001 in the hopes that she might be able to use her influence as a lawmaker to help him get his money back. Hsu again contacted the PFP legislative caucus this year with the same request.
"The problem is that financial scams are a judicial matter. As a representative of the people, Shen isn't really in a position to help him get his money back," Lu said in a phone interview yesterday.
The government should do more to combat instances of fraud and establish more service hotlines for veterans, Shen Yu-lien said yesterday.
Shen Chih-hui said while in hospital that she did not intend to take legal action against Hsu.
"The veteran [who attacked me] himself is the victim of fraud. I can understand his feelings, so I won't be taking any action against him," she said.
Upon hearing of the attack on Shen Chih-hui yesterday morning, politicians scrambled to express their condolences, with Taichung City mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) paying Shen Chih-hui a visit in the hospital, and Premier Yu Shyi-kun saying that he regretted the incident during a question-and-answer session in the Legislative Yuan.
PFP legislative caucus whip Liu Wen-hsiung (
"Elections are competitions between civilized people, there is no need for violence. Any sort of violence is unacceptable. The government should do its best to protect candidates' safety," Liu said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching