Taipei precinct chiefs were left red-faced yesterday after admitting that they did not know where gangster-turned-politician Chang An-le (張安樂) lives, during questioning at the Taipei City Council.
Chang, also known as the “White Wolf,” had threatened violence against students occupying the Legislative Yuan to protest the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement.
Once the nation’s most-wanted fugitive and the leader of the notorious Bamboo Union gang, Chang was released on NT$1 million (US$34,100) bail only hours after he was arrested upon his return to Taiwan on June 29 last year after spending the previous 17 years in China.
As the founder of the China Unification Promotion Party, Chang stepped into the limelight again on Tuesday when he led hundreds of supporters of the agreement in a failed operation to “take back the legislature.”
The legislature has been occupied by hundreds of students opposed to the service trade pact since March 18.
Responding to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華), Wenshan First Precinct director-general Liu Hung-lieh (劉鴻烈) said police had inspected Chang’s registered address, but found that he did not actually live there, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported yesterday.
“We believe Chang is currently living in New Taipei City,” Liu was quoted as saying in the report.
Criminal Investigation Division director Huang Ming-chao (黃明昭) said the division had trouble contacting Chang, so it called his close aides instead to tell them to warn Chang against mobilizing gang members to join the Tuesday rally he initiated.
The pair’s answers drew immediate criticism from several DPP councilors, including Chou Wei-you (周威佑), Ho Chih-wei (何志偉), Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) and Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄), who said it was the police’s failure to keep close tabs on “people deemed potentially dangerous to public security” that had fueled gang activity in the country.
The police department then contacted staff members and came back with a more definite answer: Chang’s current residence is in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和).
Meanwhile, the Taipei City Government also drew flak from city councilors, who accused it of trying to “cover up illegal activities by gangsters,” after city spokesman Chang Chi-chiang (張其強) said on Wednesday that Chang’s four-hour-long rally outside the legislature on Tuesday did not violate the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) because he was just “passing by.”
The law requires people planning to stage a protest to apply for an official permit six days before the rally.
“Chang An-le was only on his way to lodge an appeal [against the student movement] with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平). Since he did not stage a rally, he did not do anything illegal,” Chang Chi-chiang said.
Hsu Shu-hua said Chang An-le must have been moving in incredibly slow motion, otherwise it would not have taken him four hours to “walk past the legislature.”
DPP Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) refused to accept the city government’s explanation, saying: “If Chang An-le was really going to file an appeal with Wang Jin-pyng, was it necessary to bring hundreds of armed thugs?”
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