Five members of the Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP) were yesterday indicted for allegedly attacking and injuring several university students during protests at a music festival in September.
The “Sing! China: Shanghai-Taipei Music Festival,” a result of memorandums of understanding on cultural and arts events signed by Taipei and Shanghai in 2010 and 2014 respectively, was scheduled to run eight hours on Sept. 24 at National Taiwan University’s (NTU) athletic field in Taipei, but was canceled after two hours due to protests by students, who said the school failed to prioritize their right to use campus facilities.
Following the cancelation, three students were allegedly assaulted by CUPP members.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted the five CUPP members on charges including assault resulting in injury, uttering threats and destruction of personal property.
The five included Chang Wei (張瑋), the second son of CUPP founder Chang An-le (張安樂), also known as the “White Wolf,” a former leader of the Bamboo Union gang who is known for supporting Taiwan’s unification with China.
The other four are Hu Ta-kang (胡大剛), Yang Shao-jui (楊紹瑞), Wang Shao-bin (王啟鑌) and Lin Shao-tse (林紹哲), who allegedly used metal rods to attack the students and protesters outside the music festival.
Prosecutors also indicted one protester, Lee Po-chang (李柏璋), who allegedly argued and fought with the CUPP members, causing facial injuries to Yang and breaking a pair of eyeglasses.
Lee, who is known for his outspoken pro-Taiwan independence views, has been nicknamed the “Machine Gun of Taiwanese Independence.”
Among the most severe casualties from the incident was NTU student Chang Keng-wei (張耿維), who was struck on the back of the head.
Investigators said that a video filmed by a bystander showed Hu approaching Chang Keng-wei from behind and striking him several times on the head and other parts of his body with a collapsible metal rod.
They added that the video showed Hu angrily confronting Lee’s girlfriend, who was filming the attack with her smartphone, telling her: “Don’t come any closer. If you do, I’ll hit you as well.”
Investigators said the video also shows Chang Wei apparently directing the attack by pointing with his hands and shouting instructions to CUPP members when they confronted the protesters outside the NTU campus.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS