Family members of Liu Po-yan (劉柏煙), 80, who set himself on fire in a protest at Liberty Square in Taipei last Tuesday, said they could not afford the expensive treatment he needs and appealed to the public for donations.
Liu sustained second and third-degree burns over more than 80 percent of his body. He was in stable condition at National Taiwan University Hospital yesterday.
Liu’s protest was aimed at what he called the government’s affront to national dignity during the visit by China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
Born and raised in Nantou County, Liu had been a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for 58 years.
His son Liu Feng-long (劉豐隆) said that while his father had sustained serious injuries in his self-immolation protest, he could not receive adequate doses of anesthesia because he suffered from low blood pressure, leaving him in excruciating pain.
Since Liu Po-yan was taken to the hospital, he has twice undergone surgery, costing a total of NT$110,000, Liu Feng-long said.
Although Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators and private individuals have donated NT$100,000 to help pay for Liu Po-yan’s treatment, Liu Feng-long said the family needed to reach out to the public for donations to help pay for further treatment.
Donations can be made by postal service wire transfer, and should include a note that the donation is for Liu Po-yan. Money can be paid into the account of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (社團法人台灣人權促進會), account number 19066111.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
RSS