Hundreds of people marched in the streets of Taipei yesterday in memory of those who perished in the wake of the 228 Incident 65 years ago.
Representatives from various civic groups and victims’ families joined the parade, which began at Yongle Market, to commemorate victims of the bloody suppression of anti-government uprisings that began on Feb. 27, 1947, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, including many Taiwanese leaders and intellectuals.
Among the crowd was 80-year-old Lee Rong-chang (李榮昌), a wheelchair-bound son of a victim of the 228 Massacre, who insisted on joining the march despite the cold and the rain.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Lee recalled the afternoon on March 10, 1947 — the day his father went missing.
“While my mother was cooking squid rice porridge in the afternoon for family guests, several military police and plainclothes officers showed up,” Lee said.
After the uninvited visitors told his father that his presence was “requested by a superior,” his father was taken away and never returned home.
Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters
“We looked for my father for more than half a year, but still had no clue about his whereabouts,” Lee said, “so we reported him as a missing person.”
Because any individual who made any reference to the massacre was deemed a communist or a pro-independence advocate at the time, Lee said he was afraid to talk about how his father was taken away during the White Terror period.
Lee condemned former premier Hau Pei-tsun’s (郝柏村) comment in an op-ed piece on Tuesday last week, in which he said no more than 1,000 people were killed in the massacre.
Hau was attempting to erase people’s memories of the brutal massacre, Lee said.
At the Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕碼頭), where the march ended, Taiwan 228 Care Association chairman Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲) told the crowd that the only way to prevent the brutal oppression from recurring was to keep Chinese influence from entering Taiwan.
“It is ironic that, 65 years ago, the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] accused those who were arrested and killed [in the massacre] of being incited by the Chinese Communist Party [CCP], and now it is collaborating with the CCP to coerce Taiwanese,” he said.
Chang said all available research showed that Hau’s estimate of the number of dead was inaccurate, adding that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has not offered a sincere apology over the Incident and that his appearances at the annual memorials were only “ceremonial.”
Other speakers also accused Hau of “distorting history” and warned of growing Chinese influence in Taiwan, with Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) saying the commemoration of the massacre was even more meaningful 65 years later under Ma’s pro-Beijing administration.
Taiwanese should not harbor false expectations about China as their predecessors did toward their “motherland” after the World War II era, Huang said.
Participants concluded the memorial march by releasing water lanterns to pay tribute to the dead.
Commemorative ceremonies were also held in other cities, including New Taipei City (新北市), Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung.
Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) urged Ma to offer a clear explanation of the massacre, while Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) called on Ma to “pay attention to the hate speech of KMT members to prevent Taiwan’s society from deeper division.”
Translated by Stacy Hsu, Staff writer
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS