Faced with President Chen Shui-bian's (
John Chiang, the grandson of Chiang Kai-shek and son of Chiang Ching-kuo, said that information he had received from Taoyuan residents indicated that the mausoleums in Tzuhu (慈湖) and Touliao (頭寮) helped strengthen Taoyuan County's ties with "the history of the Republic of China."
Keeping the mausoleums in the county was also good for the local tourism industry, John Chiang said.
At a campaign event for a group of Democratic Progressive Party legislative candidates in Taipei on Friday night, the president said the military guards posted at the two mausoleums would be withdrawn early next year.
Chen also said he hoped the mausoleums would soon be relocated, as previously requested by the Chiang family.
The Chiang family made a request to the military in 2004 that the bodies be transferred to a military cemetery at Wuchih Mountain (五指山), Taipei County, where Chiang Kai-shek's other son, Weigo Chiang (蔣緯國), is buried, along with other military officers.
The relocation has not been carried out, however, because some members of the Chiang family are against it.
John Chiang said on Saturday that he was against the idea of Chen hosting any possible future relocation ceremony.
"As long as Chen is in office, I would not agree with having him host the burials because that would be an insult to my late grandfather and father," he said.
John Chiang said he might seek to amend the State Funeral Law (國葬法) if he wins re-election next month.
The current law, which took effect in 1948, stipulates that the Ministry of the Interior and "the local government of the capital" should choose a location in the capital to establish a state cemetery for those who were buried with a state funeral.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the