A Chinese hitman said to be working for the Taiwanese “Bamboo Union” (竹聯幫) gang was sentenced to life in prison — without chance of parole — by a judge in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Tuesday.
Bai Xiao Ye, 26, a martial arts expert, was convicted of murder, kidnapping, extortion and conspiracy to commit murder. To ensure that Bai never gets out of jail, Judge Michael Villani added 32 to 85 years on top of his life sentence.
According to reports, the court was told that Bai grew up in China, where he was abused as a child by his mother, who hit him with a baseball bat. He emigrated to the US when he was a teenager.
Prosecutors said that Bai then began to work for the Taiwan-based gang, which operates in California and Nevada casinos. They alleged that Bai made his living killing people and that he was a sociopath.
Bai was said to have been sent by the gang to force another Chinese immigrant, Li Wen Jun (李文忠), to pay a US$10,000 gambling debt.
On one occasion, Bai beat Li and made him promise to pay the debt, but when Li failed to pay, Bai tracked him to a karaoke bar near the Las Vegas Strip and stabbed him 32 times in an attack that took place in the early hours of July 2009. Li died from stab wounds to the head and neck. Two other people in the bar were slashed and stabbed by Bai when they tried to help Li.
Bai’s former girlfriend, Pei “Nikki” Pei, was sentenced to two years probation on charges of accessory to murder. She admitted driving Bai to the karaoke bar and gave evidence against him.
Bai has also been charged in California with killing one person and wounding another in a shooting outside a karaoke bar in Los Angeles.
Prosecutors on Tuesday did not know when the California case would go to trial and one source suggested it might be dropped in view of the Nevada sentence.
Speaking through a Mandarin interpreter, Bai broke down and cried as he told the court that he wanted to live in a more “positive” way while in prison.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS