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.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Police today said they are stepping up patrols throughout the Taipei MRT system, after a social media user threatened to detonate a bomb at an unspecified station this afternoon. Although they strongly believe the threat to be unsubstantiated, Taipei Metro police and the Railway Police Bureau still said that security and patrols would be heightened through the system. Many copycat messages have been posted since Friday’s stabbing attacks at Taipei Main Station and near Zhongshan MRT Station that left three dead and 11 injured, police said. Last night, a Threads user in a post said they would detonate a bomb on the Taipei
RSS