Police have arrested two suspects and are trying to locate other people who were allegedly involved in a clash between two groups of youths at a nightclub in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) before dawn yesterday morning, which left one person dead and one injured.
A 20-year-old man surnamed Chen (陳) died after being stabbed in the neck and upper chest.
Another man surnamed Lin (林), 20, was stabbed in the back. His injuries were not life-threatening.
Fighting between the two groups of allegedly underground gang members took place at the Wave Club.
The incident apparently started when two people bumped into each other while walking to the bathrooms, which led to shouting between the two groups, Taipei Xinyi District Police Precinct detective Tsai Kun-yi (蔡坤益) said.
That led to fighting involving about a dozen people. One man then allegedly took out a switchblade and stabbed the victims, Tsai said after questioning witnesses inside the nightclub.
After reviewing surveillance footage, police said they had identified an 18-year-old male surnamed Huang (黃) as a principle suspect and several others who took part in the fighting.
“When we arrived at Huang’s residence to take him in for questioning, he was sleeping. Huang has been cooperative so far,” Tsai said. “We are also questioning a 16-year-old surnamed Chu (朱) who was with Huang during the fighting.”
Police said they cannot yet rule out if the incident was a vendetta fight between rival gangs.
Police closed the club after the incident to interview witnesses and perform background checks on patrons.
Tsai said that police found weapons at the club during investigation and that minors were among the patrons, adding that police are to increase patrols and identification checks at Xinyi District clubs and bars in coming days.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods