The government would maintain contact with Taiwanese student associations abroad, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said yesterday, following reports last week of an attack against a Taiwanese woman in New York.
The 31-year-old victim, identified only by her first name, Theresa, was on May 2 hit on the head with a hammer while walking with a friend to a subway station in Manhattan, New York’s WABC-TV reported on Tuesday last week.
Theresa, who recently graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology, told WABC-TV that the female assailant had told her and her friend to take off their masks, the report said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
It said that Theresa, who had returned to New York last month to look for work after staying with her parents in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic, would be returning to Taiwan “for the time being.”
At a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee in Taipei yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) asked Pan how the personal safety of Taiwanese studying in the US could be protected amid reports of attacks against people of Asian descent.
Pan said he regretted the violent incident and that the government’s overseas offices have always been, and would continue to be, in contact with Taiwanese student associations abroad.
Kung asked the ministry to look into how many Taiwanese students have been attacked in the US, adding that some students might no longer want to travel abroad despite being granted admission by schools.
Students who would be studying abroad on a government scholarship would not need to hurry to start their studies within a specific time period while the pandemic continues, Pan said, adding that the ministry would protect their rights.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York said in a statement on Wednesday last week that it strongly condemned the attack on Theresa, who is believed to have Taiwanese and US citizenship.
Although New York police, citing privacy concerns, said they could not provide the victim’s identity or contact information, the office has given her a way to contact the office for assistance at any time, it said.
There has been a recent surge in anti-Asian crimes in the New York area, the office said, adding that it would remind Taiwanese abroad to be alert.
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