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candidates in Taipei on Friday night, the president said the military guards posted at the two mausoleums would be withdrawn early next year.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.
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
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