UPGRADES: Plans to arm guards with net guns, erect a ‘landscape fence’ and replace car park roller doors have been approved and await funding before being implemented
Taipei Times
Date: Mar 11, 2018
By: Lo Tien-bin / Staff reporter
The Presidential Office Building has purchased new security equipment for its guards and
A National Security Agency Special Service Center agent demonstrates a nonlethal net gun on Nov. 13, 2015. Net guns have been purchased for use by military police officers responsible for maintaining security around the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
is expected to make minor modifications to the nearly 100-year-old building.
The series of measures were adopted in response to a politically motivated civilian attack on Aug. 18 last year, when a 51-year-old man, surnamed Lu (呂), wielded a Japanese sword and slashed the neck of a military police officer guarding the west wing of the building at the intersection of Boai Road and Zhangsha Street.
The man reportedly told prosecutors that he had been thinking about beheading President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for some time.
The attack followed a 2014 incident, when a man drove a truck through a bullet-proof screen and into the main gate of the Presidential Office Building, saying he was protesting a judicial hearing involving his ex-wife. [FULL STORY]