CRIME
Martial artists brawl
Police in Changhua yesterday said that they had arrested 16 people after a man was stabbed to death in a brawl between two Indonesian martial arts groups in front of the city’s railway station on Saturday night. The deceased, a 32-year-old Indonesian man, died from blood loss in hospital after being stabbed in his back during the fight, police said. Meanwhile, a 21-year-old Indonesian man severely injured in the brawl was being treated in hospital, police said. All 16 of those arrested are Indonesian nationals. Among them is a 24-year-old man arrested in Taichung on Sunday who is suspected of inflicting the fatal wound, police said. Changhua Police Precinct Director Chang Ming-sheng (張明盛) said that weapons believed to have been used in the fight, including several knives, had been recovered from locations across Changhua. The 16 suspects have been transferred into the custody of the Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office on suspicion of murder, assault and injury leading to death.
SOCIETY
Cross-strait marriages up
This year saw a slight year-on-year increase in the number of marriages registered between Taiwanese and Chinese, after eight years of decline, according to a report by the Mainland Affairs Council to the Legislative Yuan. There were an average of 12,000 marriages registered between Taiwanese and Chinese between 2008 and 2012, the report said, adding that the number dropped to 10,000 per year in 2013 and 2014, then declined further annually after that. From 2020 to last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that saw borders closed, only 2,000 such marriages were registered on average each year. However, from January to June this year, the number rose to 3,532, which was 1.85 times the 1,238 marriages registered over the same period last year, the report said. Meanwhile, the number of Chinese visiting Taiwan in the first six months of this year was 70,104, it said. Travel ties between Taiwan and China have been largely frozen over the past three years.
EDUCATION
School director suspended
The Taichung Education Bureau on Friday last week handed a one-year suspension to the student affairs director at Feng Yuan Senior High School over the suicide of an 11th-grade student on Feb. 18. The punishment was handed out by a review committee convened by the bureau in response to what it called the “completely unacceptable” action taken by the school following the student’s death. A review into the matter was prompted by a claim from the deceased student’s father that his son had been subjected to months of bullying by school staff. The father said that his son was singled out by school officials, who frequently searched his belongings or framed him for misdeeds he did not commit. In March, the bureau temporarily reassigned seven school officials to other positions, while suspending the director of student affairs for three months, pending an investigation. However, after rejecting the findings of a report submitted by the school on Tuesday last week — which said that staff had not bullied the student — the bureau convened a review committee. The committee found that the punishment given to the student affairs director by the school — a demerit on his record — was “not proportionate” given that he was found to have emotionally harmed the student through improper discipline, the bureau said.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
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