The Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) on Monday called on the US to label organizations associated with the suspect in the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church shooting as domestic terrorists, following accusations that he was a member of a group backing unification with ties to the Chinese government.
David Wenwei Chou (周文偉), 68, was arrested on Sunday and is being held in lieu of US$1 million bail at the Orange County Intake Release Center over a mass shooting at the California church that left one dead and five wounded.
Local police suspect the shooting was politically motivated after they found notes in Chou’s car indicating that he did not believe Taiwan should be an independent state separate from China.
Photo: Reuters
Internet users have accused Chou of involvement in Las Vegas Chinese for Peaceful Unification, a semi-official organization of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with branches in several countries.
An April 3, 2019, report on the media platform Las Vegas Chinese News Network said that Chou attended the founding ceremony of the group and was an outspoken supporter of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) during Han’s presidential campaign.
A picture published with the report showed Chou holding up a banner calling for the “annihilation of separatist demons.”
Photo: AP
Group founder Gu Yawen (顧雅文) yesterday told the China Review News Agency that Chou did attend the 2019 founding ceremony, but had seemed “too radical” to her and had not attended group events since the second half of 2019.
FAPA president Minze Chien (簡明子) said that FAPA members were “shocked and horrified by this horrific shooting.”
FAPA is a “Taiwanese-American organization that promotes freedom, human rights and democracy for the people of Taiwan,” Chien said.
Photo: AFP
“We strongly condemn this act of cowardice in the strongest terms possible. We, therefore, urge the authorities to prosecute this heinous crime as a politically motivated hate crime, and label any groups he was affiliated with as domestic terrorists,” FAPA said.
Chou was born in Taiwan in 1953 and raised there before emmigrating to the US, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles Director-General Louis Huang (黃敏境) said on Monday, adding that the man who was killed and the five injured were also Taiwanese-Americans.
The victim has been identified as 52-year-old doctor John Cheng (鄭達志). He leaves behind a wife and two children.
In Taipei, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) condemns all forms of violence, and expressed her condolences to Cheng’s family and hoped for the fast recovery of the wounded.
Chang said the president had asked Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), who is based in Washington, to visit California soon to express the government’s willingness to offer assistance to the families of the victims.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS