Two separate groups of students attending Taiwanese schools in China were yesterday reported to have been involved in robberies. Two students have been detained and could face jail terms of up to 10 years if convicted.
Tseng Hsueh-e (曾雪娥), principal of Huadong Taiwanese Children’s School — a school for children of Taiwanese businesspeople operating in China — in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, told the Central News Agency that seven of her students were allegedly involved in an armed robbery in March.
Two of the seven students have been detained because, at age 18, they are legally adults and local prosecutors are asking that they be sentenced to 10 years in prison, Tseng said.
She added that the five other students have been released on bail and have been transferred to other schools.
The principal said the students committed the crime with a sense of excitement rather than with serious intent in mind and that they had returned some of the items they had stolen.
Tseng said one of the students made the bad decision to commit robbery while he was alone in Kunshan, because his mother had returned to Taiwan to take care of his father, who was unwell.
The incident illustrates the problems Taiwanese students can encounter when adjusting to the environment in China and the students involved in the alleged crimes “should be given one more chance,” she said.
Meanwhile, four students from Shanghai Taiwanese Children’s School were also reported to have been involved in a robbery in February.
The case is now closed and the four students — all of whom have graduated or transferred to other schools — have been put on probation, a source at the school said.
The age of the four students in Shanghai is not known.
Straits Exchange Foundation spokesman Maa Shaw-chang (馬紹章) said yesterday that neither the parents nor the two schools requested help from the foundation, adding that the foundation is prepared to provide any necessary assistance in accordance with Chinese law.
Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Yang Yi (楊毅) declined to comment before obtaining more detailed information about the two cases.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
‘A SERIOUS THREAT’: Japan has expressed grave concern over the Strait’s security over the years, which demonstrated Tokyo’s firm support for peace in the area, an official said China’s military drills around Taiwan are “incompatible” with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday. “Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important for the international community, including Japan,” Iwaya told Wang during a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Kuala Lumpur. “China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan are incompatible with this,” a statement released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday cited Iwaya as saying. The Foreign Ministers’ Meetings are a series of diplomatic
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
RSS