CRIME
Martial artists brawl
Police in Changhua yesterday said that they had arrested 16 people after a man was stabbed to death in a brawl between two Indonesian martial arts groups in front of the city’s railway station on Saturday night. The deceased, a 32-year-old Indonesian man, died from blood loss in hospital after being stabbed in his back during the fight, police said. Meanwhile, a 21-year-old Indonesian man severely injured in the brawl was being treated in hospital, police said. All 16 of those arrested are Indonesian nationals. Among them is a 24-year-old man arrested in Taichung on Sunday who is suspected of inflicting the fatal wound, police said. Changhua Police Precinct Director Chang Ming-sheng (張明盛) said that weapons believed to have been used in the fight, including several knives, had been recovered from locations across Changhua. The 16 suspects have been transferred into the custody of the Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office on suspicion of murder, assault and injury leading to death.
SOCIETY
Cross-strait marriages up
This year saw a slight year-on-year increase in the number of marriages registered between Taiwanese and Chinese, after eight years of decline, according to a report by the Mainland Affairs Council to the Legislative Yuan. There were an average of 12,000 marriages registered between Taiwanese and Chinese between 2008 and 2012, the report said, adding that the number dropped to 10,000 per year in 2013 and 2014, then declined further annually after that. From 2020 to last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that saw borders closed, only 2,000 such marriages were registered on average each year. However, from January to June this year, the number rose to 3,532, which was 1.85 times the 1,238 marriages registered over the same period last year, the report said. Meanwhile, the number of Chinese visiting Taiwan in the first six months of this year was 70,104, it said. Travel ties between Taiwan and China have been largely frozen over the past three years.
EDUCATION
School director suspended
The Taichung Education Bureau on Friday last week handed a one-year suspension to the student affairs director at Feng Yuan Senior High School over the suicide of an 11th-grade student on Feb. 18. The punishment was handed out by a review committee convened by the bureau in response to what it called the “completely unacceptable” action taken by the school following the student’s death. A review into the matter was prompted by a claim from the deceased student’s father that his son had been subjected to months of bullying by school staff. The father said that his son was singled out by school officials, who frequently searched his belongings or framed him for misdeeds he did not commit. In March, the bureau temporarily reassigned seven school officials to other positions, while suspending the director of student affairs for three months, pending an investigation. However, after rejecting the findings of a report submitted by the school on Tuesday last week — which said that staff had not bullied the student — the bureau convened a review committee. The committee found that the punishment given to the student affairs director by the school — a demerit on his record — was “not proportionate” given that he was found to have emotionally harmed the student through improper discipline, the bureau said.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
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