Six people involved in clashes related to a Chinese music festival last year were sentenced to between 20 days in detention and jail terms of five months, all of which could be commuted to fines, the Taipei District Court said yesterday.
The six men included Chang Wei (張瑋), son of Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP) founder Chang An-le (張安樂) — a former gang leader also known as the “White Wolf.”
Chang Wei was given 40 days in detention on charges of attacking and injuring several students who protested the holding of the “Sing! China: Shanghai-Taipei Music Festival” at the athletics field of National Taiwan University on Sept. 24 last year, the court said.
Lee Po-chang (李柏璋), a staunch pro-Taiwan independence advocate, received the same punishment as Chang for attacking and causing facial injuries to a CUPP member surnamed Yang (楊), who was attending the festival.
Lee was also accused by prosecutors of breaking Yang’s glasses during a scuffle between pro-unification and pro-independence crowds, after the festival was canceled due to the protest.
Hu Ta-kang (胡大剛), who assaulted a student that he thought was trying to help Lee, was sentenced to five months in jail for hitting the student with an extendable baton and to 20 days in detention on charges of intimidation for shouting at Lee’s girlfriend.
Three other individuals were sentenced to detentions ranging from 40 to 70 days, the court said, adding that the verdicts can be appealed.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday