President Tsai Ing-wen's office extends condolences to the victims as a Taiwanese lawmaker questions whether Chinese propaganda fueled the violence.
by a gunman who authorities said was driven by hatred of the island, while a lawmaker from her ruling party questioned whether Chinese propaganda was a motivating factor behind the violence.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s office issued a statement Tuesday saying she condemned “any form of violence,” extended her condolences to those killed and injured and had asked the island’s chief representative in the U.S. to fly to California to provide assistance. Many of the congregants at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church, which rents space at Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods,The alleged gunman, 68-year-old David Wenwei Chou of Las Vegas, is expected to appear in court Tuesday.
One man was killed and five people were wounded in the shooting, which occurred Sunday afternoon. A federal hate crimes investigation has been opened by the FBI., police said. Chou was born in Taiwan in 1953, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported, citing the head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, Taiwan’s de facto consulate in the city.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary, and regularly denounces Tsai, her ruling Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, and their foreign supporters in increasingly violent terms.stepping up its military harassmentIn Taiwan, DPP legislator Lin Ching-yi said that “ideology has become a reason for genocide” in a message on her Facebook page.
Lin said Taiwanese people needed to “face up to hateful speech and organizations” backed by China’s ruling Communist Party, singling out the United Front Work Department, which seeks to advance China’s political agenda in Taiwan and among overseas Chinese communities.
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