Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday criticized a government-sponsored study of the 228 Massacre in 1947 that blamed the Presbyterian Church for the riot, whitewashing the responsibility of Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) regime.
The study conducted by Chu Hung-yuan (朱浤源), a research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Modern History, received a grant of NT$500,000 from the government-affiliated Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, part of the organization’s regular sponsorships of academic studies.
In its defense, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy chief executive Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) said Chu’s study represented his personal views and that it was not the position of the organization because it was a grant-maintained study rather than a project undertaken by the organization.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Chu published his research in November last year in Washington and said he had made five breakthroughs.
The first was the use of personal testimony by Hsu Hsueh-chi (許雪姬) and other researchers, which the Research Report on the 228 Incident published by the Executive Yuan in 1992 was based on, was likely to include “unnecessary emotion.” The second was the key role of the underground Chinese Communist Party. The third was the intervention of “hawkish” figures from the US. The fourth was the exceptionally small number of military personnel stationed in Taiwan at the time and the fifth was the Presbyterian Church’s “wide participation in the attacks.”
Huang was bombarded with questions from DPP lawmakers regarding the study at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
“How could you not know what role the Presbyterian Church played in the democratization process in the country? Chu admitted that he wasn’t able to access the Presbyterian Church’s files. Given that, how could he come to the conclusion he did?” DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) asked.
Huang said the conclusion was also “to our regret,” adding that the foundation would upload the research online so that it could be subject to scrutiny.
DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said Chu’s research distorted the facts of the incident and that it could cause serious damage to families of the victims of the incident, creating confrontation between Taiwanese and Mainlanders.
“The research is unacceptable. It attributed the uprising to incitement initiated by the Presbyterian Church and local ruffians and to infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party. Even former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was an instigator. How can we accept such baseless conclusions?” Tsai asked.
Citing an example of the so-called “new findings” in Chu’s research, Tsai noted an incident whereby a group led by the Presbyterian Church attacked Mainlanders in Changhua County and robbed their textile factory.
“Is this true? Did people see the Presbyterian Church lead the killers? Why haven’t we seen similar descriptions in previous research?” he asked.
Chu has a history of causing controversy when commenting on the 228 Incident.
In 2007, he said the Japanese colonial government was to blame for the violence, rather than Chiang, because the Japanese deliberately created inflation before they handed Taiwan over to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to provoke public resentment of Chiang’s regime.
The 228 Incident was a Japanese “premeditated economic attack” on Taiwan, Chu said, adding that the US was complicit in the 228 Incident because it had planned to bring Taiwan under its mandate.
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