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.
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
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