A disgruntled Chinese factory worker in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, fatally stabbed two of his Taiwanese employers on Monday and left a third critically injured, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday.
Liu Hanghuang (劉漢黃) stabbed Lin Yu-teng (林玉騰) and Shao Cheng-chi (邵正吉) to death and severely injured production manager Lai Cheng-jui (賴振瑞) at a metal factory, the report said.
Shao died at the scene and Lin was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital, local police said. The three men were from Taichung and were partners.
The United Evening News said Liu and Lai got into a shouting match at around 12:20pm when Liu confronted Lai at the factory entrance. Shao and Lin reportedly ran outside to try to break up the argument but were repeatedly stabbed by Lai.
Liu, a native of Guizhou, was hired as a machine operator last August. After working at the factory for more than a month, his right hand got caught in one of the machines and was severely injured. The hand was later amputated.
Police suspected the killing was fueled by Liu’s unhappiness with the compensation he received from the company for the loss of his hand. He reportedly had asked for 180,000 yuan (US$26,000), but only received half that amount.
The company continued to give him room and board although he had not worked since the accident.
A Chinese newspaper said Liu attempted suicide last Saturday by threatening to jump from a fifth-floor ledge at the factory.
Police reportedly negotiated with him for more than an hour before he agreed to leave the ledge on the condition that he could discuss his compensation claim face to face with his employers.
Lin’s older brother Lin Fu-chien (林富健), who was also in Dongguan, was quoted by the United Evening News as saying his brother was a decent man and he had died in vain because “he had nothing to do with this.”
The Straits Exchange Foundation said it would help family members of the dead and injured travel to China. It said that as soon as it learned of the incident on Monday night it asked its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), for assistance.
The foundation also asked the Taiwan Businessmen Association in Dongguan (東莞台商協會) to offer any assistance.
ARATS has asked the Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.
The foundation also said that people who find themselves in an emergency situation in China and need immediate help should call the 24-hour hot line at: 886-2-2712-9292.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS