A man who said he wanted to tell President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that he loved her was arrested yesterday while allegedly trying to break into a military police camp while brandishing a sickle near the Presidential Office in Taipei, the Military Police Command said in a news release.
At about 11am, the man, surnamed Lin (林), 53, approached guards outside the 211th Military Police Battalion, which is one street away from the Presidential Office Building, it said.
Wielding a sickle, the suspect tried to attack the guards, but was subdued and taken to a nearby police precinct for questioning, it said, adding that no one was injured in the incident.
Photo: Wang Kuan-jen, Taipei Times
The Presidential Office said there was no threat to its security during the incident.
The 211th Military Police Battalion is responsible for maintaining security around the Presidential Office and the nearby Presidential Residence.
Asked by reporters about his intentions, Lin said he wanted to tell Tsai he loved her.
He was referred to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on charges of obstructing an officer on duty and attempted bodily harm.
According to a preliminary investigation, Lin left his hometown of Tainan several years ago for Taipei and New Taipei City, where he worked at construction sites and an environmental protection company, police said.
Lin has a prior criminal record for offenses including obstructing an officer on duty and endangering public safety, police said.
Lin on Wednesday was received by the Presidential Office as he made an appeal to the government over damage caused by flooding in central and southern Taiwan late last month, a source with knowledge of the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS