Old media report falsely linked to Taipei metro attack assailant
- Published on January 7, 2026 at 07:44
- 3 min read
- By Sammy HEUNG, AFP Hong Kong
After three people were killed in a stabbing rampage in Taipei in December 2025, a graphic from a months-old news report circulated online with a false claim it was proof that the assailant had a Chinese mother and that he held a residency permit in the mainland. Taipei's top China policy body said this is "false information" and the report was in fact about a dispute over a drafting order given to a man who had given up his Taiwanese citizenship.
"Clarified! No wonder his name sounds like someone from mainland China, while his appearance resembles a Taiwanese person. It is because he has a mother from mainland China and has Chinese nationality," reads part of a traditional Chinese Threads post shared on December 20, 2025.
It contains a graphic that provides details of a man born in 1998 with a father from Taiwan and a mother from China. It also says he gave up his Taiwanese nationality in 2016 but was nonetheless included in Taiwan's military draft.
It also linked to a video report from the official Weibo account of Chinese online news outlet Knews on December 19, 2025 about the deadly rampage in the Taiwanese capital (archived link).
On the day, an assailant, identified by his parents as Chang Wen, set off smoke bombs inside Taipei's main metro station during rush hour before launching into a stabbing spree, killing three people and wounding 11 others (archived here and here).
He was later found dead, with Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an saying he had apparently jumped off a nearby building.
Similar posts also circulated elsewhere on Threads, X, and Facebook.
While some users questioned the claim, others believed the details in the video report are proof that Chang had Chinese background.
"Of course it is China," one of them said, while another wrote, "You've finally realised this? But you are in China's trap already."
But Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council refuted the claim in an email to AFP on January 2, 2026.
"The Mainland Affairs Council emphasized that online rumors claiming the suspect is a descendant of a new immigrant from China is false information and urged citizens not to continue spreading them," it said.
"The Council strongly condemned the actions of a few individuals who are deliberately using this tragic social event to incite internal conflict and division, and to generate publicity."
A reverse image search found the graphic in the false post was taken from a video on Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS News' YouTube channel published on June 13, 2025 (archived link).
It reports on the row over a man receiving a draft order from the island's military even after he had given up his Taiwanese citizenship and applied for Chinese nationality.
The graphics mentioned in the false claims appear between 0:13 and 0:35, and gives the man's background, which is the same as that detailed in other media reports covering the dispute (archived here and here).
While Chang also served as a volunteer soldier in Taiwan's military, his service record is different from those in the screenshot, according to the island's Ministry of National Defence.
A spokesperson told AFP on January 2, 2026 that Chang was a volunteer soldier who received two major disciplinary demerits in March 2022 and was discharged from service for unsuitability for service, while the man mentioned in the report received the draft order two years later in 2024.
Taiwan's police chief Chang Jung-hsin similarly said at a press conference on December 20 that Chang was dismissed from the military over drunk driving in 2022 (archived link).
AFP has earlier debunked misinformation about other attacks.
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