Two motor vehicle incidents renewed concern over presidential security yesterday after a man drove his sports utility vehicle into a stone planter in front of the Presidential Office Building in the morning and a woman hit a barricade near the presidential residence on her scooter. No casualties were reported in either incident.
The 39-year-old man, a Yunlin County resident surnamed Lin (林), hit the planter at about 6:42am while driving on Ketagalan Boulevard, the police said. He was not injured and was taken to a nearby police station for questioning before being turned over to prosecutors.
The stone planter, one of several erected in front of the Presidential Office Building’s driveway to prevent vehicles from nearing the building, suffered minor damage.
Photo: Chiang Hsiang, Taipei Times
The police said Lin told them he was trying to get to his cellphone so he could take a photograph while driving toward the building, and accidentally bumped into the planter.
Lin drove to Taipei on Sunday night to collect a payment owed by a client of the iron factory his family runs and decided to do some sightseeing after he could not locate the client, the police said.
He visited Liberty Square in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall before driving to the Presidential Office Building, the police said.
The police said Lin appeared to have no political motives, and this was confirmed by members of his family who were asked to come to Taipei to assist with the investigation.
Family members said that Lin had been emotionally unstable recently and has been seeing a psychiatrist, the police said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was informed of the incident.
The Presidential Office issued a statement “condemning any type of violence,” adding that “the presidential office respects people’s freedom of expression.”
The scooter incident took place at about 1pm, when a woman hit a barricade in front of the president’s official residence in downtown Taipei. The police said the woman appeared to be in a trance, and they ruled the incident to be an accident.
Protective measures around the Presidential Office Building were boosted last year after Chang Te-cheng (張德正) rammed his 35-tonne gravel truck through barriers and up the front steps of the building.
He was reportedly upset by a district court ruling that sentenced him to 40 days detention over charges of domestic violence.
He was tried for attempted murder and four other charges, and on Feb. 5 last year was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison.
On Nov. 4 last year, Chen Ping-sung (陳柄菘), 60, rammed his car into the No. 3 gate of the president’s official residence to protest what he said were cases of “major medical malpractice.”
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that perhaps the president’s office should be moved away from the city center.
“If we want peace and security in the long run, ideally the Presidential Office Building should be moved to the Hengshan Military Command Center in Dazhi District (大直),” Ko said.
He also said it was “strange” that the presidential offices were located in a building which used to be the seat of Japanese governors-general.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS