An unusually high number of protests targeting statues of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) have been reported across the nation in the wake of the 68th anniversary of the 228 Incident on Saturday.
A statue of Chiang erected in Taichung City’s Jhongjheng Park (中正公園) was found yesterday morning covered with white and red paint as well as ghost money, with the Chinese characters for “killer” and “villain” spray-painted on its pedestal.
Police said it was the second defacement of the stone statue in two days. On Saturday morning, it was discovered with the Chinese character for “murderer” spray-painted on its base. City workers removed the graffiti later that day.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Taichung’s Construction Bureau director Huang Yu-lin (黃玉霖) said the agency has teamed up with the city’s Education Bureau in investigating if other statues of Chiang have been vandalized.
The city government said that just four of the city’s approximately 400 parks have statues of Chiang and that it would consider whether to keep or relocate them once the investigation has been concluded.
It said no charges would be filed against whoever is responsible, as the spray-painted slogans are considered to be equivalent to stains, but that police presence in the areas involved would be increased.
Photo: Chang Ching-ya, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, in northern Taiwan, a beheaded statue of Chiang depicted in two photographs posted on a Facebook page titled “Indefinite Support to Art Installations Featuring Chiang” (無限期支持—全台裝置藝術蔣) on Saturday has been confirmed to be located in a park in Keelung.
Investigators said the fiberglass-based statue’s head was smashed to pieces, and the statue’s torso and ankles were damaged. They added that the perpetrators apparently attempted to knock the sculpture down before realizing that its legs are made of steel and concrete.
Statues of Chiang erected within Taoyuan’s Jhongjheng Park and in front of the Taoyuan Railway Station were also vandalized.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
In addition, sculptures of Chiang on campuses nationwide have been defaced over the past few days, including ones at Taipei First Girls’ High School, Taipei Municipal Daan Vocational High School, National Chutung Senior High School, Tunghai University and National Taipei University of Technology.
Tunghai University chief secretary Lu Ping-kuan (呂炳寬) said the school’s statue of Chiang and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall have existed for nearly three decades and carry historical significance to the university.
“While the school respects students’ opinions and is open to discussions regarding the hall’s renaming and the statue’s removal, they must be expressed in a rational manner,” Lu said, adding that vandalism would be dealt with in accordance with school regulations.
CLOSED FOR DISINFECTION: Two of the three local cases were linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten, while the other case works at a McDonald’s restaurant The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported three new local COVID-19 infections and 11 imported cases, but no deaths. The local cases are two men and a woman aged between 20 and 80 who reside in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, the CECC said in a news release. Two of them are linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman. He said they are both associated with the mother of a kindergarten student, who was earlier confirmed to have
BIOLOGICAL AGENT: A containment exercise was held in southern Tainan, in response to a mock assault where troops were assumed to be attacked by bioweapons The live-fire component of this year’s annual Han Kuang military exercises, Taiwan’s major war games involving all military branches, began yesterday morning and is to run until Friday to test the armed forces’ capability to fend off a Chinese invasion. The 37th edition of the annual event officially began after the Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Operations Command Center, also known as the Hengshan Command Center, announced the initiation of the five-day live-fire drills. Yesterday’s drills were focused on testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities in the event of a full-scale Chinese invasion. As part of the drills, air force
‘RAISING TAIWAN’S VISIBILITY’: Premier Su Tseng-chang said changing TECRO’s name to include ‘Taiwan’ would make the representative office more recognizable The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday declined comment on a Financial Times report that the name of Taiwan’s representative office in Washington might be changed, saying only that bolstering and upgrading ties with the US has been the government’s long-term objective. The ministry made the comments after the UK-based newspaper reported on that US President Joe Biden’s administration is considering allowing the government to use the word “Taiwan” in the office’s title. The US is “seriously considering a request from Taiwan to change the name of its mission in the US capital from ‘Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office’ [TECRO] to ‘Taiwan
WELCOME BACK: Foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese can now directly apply for a visa with representative offices overseas, the CECC said Regulations on applications for entry to the nation by foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese have been relaxed effective immediately, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported two new local and three imported cases of COVID-19. Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), deputy head of the center, said the relaxation meant that such applications would be treated as general cases, instead of special ones that are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. “Considering the recent local COVID-19 situation and the needs of foreign spouses and children to visit their family in Taiwan, we are allowing Taiwan’s
RSS