This year, 228 Memorial Day saw a memorable and meaningful commemoration. Yesterday was a most touching scene as people of Taiwan formed a human chain from one end of the island to the other and then held up their hands at precisely 2:28 pm. Rather than feeling hatred and vengeful, the message that the people tried to get across to the world is their love and faith in their land and their longing for peace. This was despite the tragic massacres and bloodshed perpetrated 57 years ago by the totalitarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, which served as a prelude to decades of white terror and the martial-law era.
Vice President Annette Lu (
The 228 experience taught us the importance of democracy and freedom and the ruthlessness of single-party totalitarianism. The people of Taiwan will never give up the fruits of democracy and embrace the dictatorship of Beijing. The sovereignty of this country must be safeguarded. The experience also revealed to us the evil of unchecked aggression. Therefore, the people of Taiwan must call for peace and say "no" to Chinese missiles.
Moreover, it is the wish of the organizers and the participants of the event to unequivocally teach not only China, but in fact the entire world the valuable lessons they have learned, so that Beijing can no longer deceive the international community about what is the will of the people of Taiwan.
The lessons of the 228 Incident are heartfelt by the people of Taiwan, and have become a part of their core values. This was reflected by the overwhelming and enthusiastic participation in the rally yesterday. It was estimated that 500,000 people would have been enough to form the human chain. At the end, according to the chairman of the rally, Huang Chao-tung (
However, it is truly puzzling how some people, mostly supporters of the pan-blues, could paint the holding of the rally as inciting and manipulating ethnic rivalry and hatred. For example, as late as on Friday, the Miaoli campaign headquarters of pan-blue presidential candidate and KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
While it is true that in the past many people in Taiwan perceived the 228 Incident as a massacre of native Taiwanese by the ruling Chinese regime, people in Taiwan -- across all ethnic groups -- have come to realize that such an interpretation is an over-simplified depiction of the tragedy. Everyone who lives here is Taiwanese. In fact, it was the intention of the organizers to highlight the theme of ethnic harmony and unity through this rally -- as demonstrated by the participation of people from every ethnic group in the rally and the invitation of representatives from the five major ethnic groups in Taiwan to stand next to Chen and Lee in the event.
The 228 Incident should not be a taboo or a hush-hush topic -- the way it was treated before Lee openly issued an apology for it during his presidency. It is part of Taiwan's history that must be faced with love and tolerance, which is exactly what this rally was about.
Taiwan stands at the epicenter of a seismic shift that will determine the Indo-Pacific’s future security architecture. Whether deterrence prevails or collapses will reverberate far beyond the Taiwan Strait, fundamentally reshaping global power dynamics. The stakes could not be higher. Today, Taipei confronts an unprecedented convergence of threats from an increasingly muscular China that has intensified its multidimensional pressure campaign. Beijing’s strategy is comprehensive: military intimidation, diplomatic isolation, economic coercion, and sophisticated influence operations designed to fracture Taiwan’s democratic society from within. This challenge is magnified by Taiwan’s internal political divisions, which extend to fundamental questions about the island’s identity and future
The narrative surrounding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attendance at last week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit — where he held hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and chatted amiably with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — was widely framed as a signal of Modi distancing himself from the US and edging closer to regional autocrats. It was depicted as Modi reacting to the levying of high US tariffs, burying the hatchet over border disputes with China, and heralding less engagement with the Quadrilateral Security dialogue (Quad) composed of the US, India, Japan and Australia. With Modi in China for the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has postponed its chairperson candidate registration for two weeks, and so far, nine people have announced their intention to run for chairperson, the most on record, with more expected to announce their campaign in the final days. On the evening of Aug. 23, shortly after seven KMT lawmakers survived recall votes, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) announced he would step down and urged Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) to step in and lead the party back to power. Lu immediately ruled herself out the following day, leaving the subject in question. In the days that followed, several
The Jamestown Foundation last week published an article exposing Beijing’s oil rigs and other potential dual-use platforms in waters near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島). China’s activities there resembled what they did in the East China Sea, inside the exclusive economic zones of Japan and South Korea, as well as with other South China Sea claimants. However, the most surprising element of the report was that the authors’ government contacts and Jamestown’s own evinced little awareness of China’s activities. That Beijing’s testing of Taiwanese (and its allies) situational awareness seemingly went unnoticed strongly suggests the need for more intelligence. Taiwan’s naval
RSS