Police tightened security yesterday and resumed investigating the fatal stabbing of the father of a former Olympian, an attack that stunned the athletic community and embarrassed Chinese authorities determined to hold the most successful Summer Games ever.
Todd and Barbara Bachman of Lakeville, Minneapolis — parents of 2004 volleyball Olympian Elisabeth “Wiz” Bachman and in-laws of US men’s volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon — were attacked by a Chinese man while visiting the 13th-century Drum Tower on Saturday.
The assault came only hours after the spectacular opening ceremony for the Games.
The US Olympic Committee confirmed Bachman died from knife wounds and that Barbara Bachman suffered life-threatening injuries.
She and their Chinese tour guide, who was also injured in the attack, were being treated in a Beijing hospital.
The committee said yesterday that Bachman suffered multiple lacerations and stab wounds. She underwent eight hours of surgery and was in critical but stable condition. The statement said family members were at the hospital and that McCutcheon would “not be on the bench today” for the US men’s volleyball team’s opening game against Venezuela.
Rob Browning, team leader of the men’s volleyball team, said the team was united in supporting the Bachmans.
“We are absolutely devastated by what has occurred, for their loss and for everything they are going through,” Browning said. “We are a family and we’ll get through this together as a family.”
US President George W. Bush thanked Beijing yesterday for its handling of the attack.
“Your government has been very attentive, very sympathetic and I appreciate that a lot,” Bush told Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) before they met for private talks at the presidential compound.
Hu said his government took the incident “very seriously” and pledged to keep Washington apprised of the investigation.
MORE ARRESTS
Five people staged a protest near Tiananmen Square yesterday against Chinese rule of Tibet, an activist group said, in the latest pro-Tibet demonstration to hit Beijing around the Olympics.
Two of the protesters, including a Tibetan woman from Germany, Padma-Dolma Fielitz, held the Tibetan flag just outside the southern entrance of the square in central Beijing, Students for a Free Tibet said in a statement.
As Chinese security guards tried to take the flag away, Fielitz, 21, was seen being dragged across the ground, the organization said.
Three other activists then tried to unveil a banner that read “Tibetans are dying for freedom,” before they were taken away, the group said.
All five protesters — Fielitz, two Americans and two Canadians — were detained and their whereabouts were unknown.
Students for a Free Tibet also said five Canadian activists were being detained at their hotel in Beijing and questioned in the basement.
DETAINED
Also yesterday, a Christian activist and his brother were detained while on their way to a church service attended by Bush, the activist’s brother said.
Hua Huilin said he and his brother, Hua Huiqi, a housing activist and member of an underground Christian church, were stopped by two black cars while bicycling to the church around dawn.
Hua Huilin said they were taken away in separate cars by security agents, whom his brother recognized from previous encounters. He was released in the afternoon, but Hua Huiqi was still at an undisclosed location, he said.
“I told him not to go because it’s during the Olympic Games and this period is sensitive,” Hua Huilin said in a telephone interview. “But he was determined to go because he said that church was where he was baptized. So I went with him hoping to protect him.”
The line was disconnected three times during Hua’s conversation, a sign that authorities were monitoring the call.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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