On May 16, 2022, a deadly shooting at a Taiwanese congregation in Laguna Woods occurred. This violent event left five injured and one victim dead, all of which were Taiwanese.
The victim, John Cheng, was deemed a hero after sacrificing himself by taking a bullet. When Chou revealed his aggression at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church at lunchtime, Cheng charged at the shooter in an attempt to disarm him.
“Dr. Cheng is a hero in this incident,” Orange County Sheriff Donald Barnes said Monday. “Without the actions of Dr. Cheng, it is no doubt that there would have been numerous additional victims in this crime.”
Before his tragic death, Cheng was able to disrupt Chou’s attack long enough for the pastor to knock him out. Chou was then tied up and unable to do more harm as the authorities arrived at the scene.
During a press conference on May 16, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes identified the lone gunman as David Chou (周文偉), of Las Vegas. Barnes declared that based on the information collected, the shooting “was a politically motivated hate incident, a grievance that this individual had between himself and the Taiwanese community at large,” and later on added that “It is believed the suspect involved was upset about political tensions between China and Taiwan.”
Chou is a Taiwanese-born U.S. citizen who immigrated “from China” many years ago. Acquaintances of the shooter described him as “very negative” and recalled his controversial political views and disapproval for law enforcement and the U.S. and Taiwanese governments. After viewing Chou’s notes, the police confirm that this attack was motivated by his hate towards all Taiwanese. County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Chou was born in Taiwan after his family was forcibly removed from mainland China after the civil war, providing a seemingly clear motive for the shooting.
The deep divisions between the identities of Taiwanese and Chinese date back to December 1949, when the Kuomintang (國民黨) was defeated in the Chinese Civil War and had to flee to Taiwan to establish the government. Tensions between China and Taiwan are at their highest in decades, with Beijing stepping up its military harassment by flying fighter jets toward the self-governing island. China has not ruled out force to reunify with Taiwan, but one can only hope that another civil war does not emerge from the accumulated generational hate.
