Contrary to claims that Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) should be held accountable for the 228 Incident, a group of academics said yesterday that the Japanese colonial government's scheming was to blame for the violence.
A recent official report concluded that Chiang should bear responsibility for the incident, and on Monday President Chen Shui-bian (
But Academia Sinica fellows Chu Hung-yuan (
"The incident took place when Taiwan had just been handed over by Japan to China. As Japan was reluctant to give Taiwan over to China, it used economic measures to cause inflation and food shortages before it left," Chu said.
Chu said that Taiwan's economic situation -- which created resentment against the government from China -- was the result of Japan's premeditated economic attack on Taiwan.
The academics also criticized former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
"What Ma said was contrary to the facts. The government had no choice but to send in the army to suppress the violence launched by the people," Huang said.
In other developments, Independent Legislator Li Ao (
"The Democratic Progressive Party has been saying that tens of thousands of people died in the incident. Only about 800 people died at that time," he said.
He said the executive administrator of Taiwan at the time, Chen Yi (陳儀), had sent a confidential telegram to Chiang to say that the death toll in the incident was about 800.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
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The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
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