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.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on